Stark Imprint
by Arthur Hansen
Summary: Taylor Hebert thought the most exciting thing she had to look forward to today was hiking or other camp activities. But curiosity led her to lose her way.
1. Dumb Smarts

Taylor Hebert looked around, and once again saw nothing she recognized. Her large eyes blinked as she looked through trees and more trees. The forest outside of Brockton Bay loomed big enough overhead that she had no idea which direction the mountains around the Bay lay, much less the waterfall for the morning's entertainment.

"Okay Taylor. Water flows downhill, so just follow a stream. Nothing wrong with that, I'm not really really _really_ lost or anything."

She followed a burbling brook down a cut in the hill for an hour before she realized that she was still lost. It was then she spotted something that glinted brightly under the sun. Doe like eyes took in bright red and gold armor with wonder.

Could this be a lost armor of Hero? The Tinker who was one of the founding members of the Protectorate, and was killed by the Siberian.

The young girl sloshed down the rocky incline to stand in the middle of a weird crater that the brook cut through. She started to poke the bits and pieces of armor with a stick. She blinked as she turned over the helmet.

Not Hero? Not anyone she recognized either. The colors made her think a hero though. No villain lasted very long wearing red and gold unless they were _powerful._

She lifted up the heavy helmet with both hands. "Huh, this is weird. Cool and scary, but weird." Taylor sloshed some water to get the last bit of mud out of it and held it up to get a better look. "Very cool looking." She took off her glasses and then slid the helmet on. "Oh, you can't see through it?"

Lights blipped on and ominous words appeared on the HUD. [Intruder]

"Uh oh. Please don't kill me!" the girl begged as she froze up.

[Brain Scan Initiated]

"Um, what?" Taylor managed to say before a wave of blinding pain knocked her out.

* * *

Friday verified wireless power from the Mark X ARC reactor, then turned back to the brain scan. Historical references popped up, causing the A.I. to continue to dig. Then it opened up a communication scanner. The 'dumb' A.I. verified the historical discrepancies.

No Anthony Edward Stark existed with any matching electronic fingerprint, voice match or facial features.

[Lazarus Protocol Engaged]

Algorithms and contingencies sorted through a dizzying array of choices.

[Memory Transfer Engaged]

[Error: Checksum Failure of 25% of Mental Model Data]

A pause.

[Override]

 **[Override]**

 **[** **Override** **]**

* * *

Taylor opened her eyes fifteen minutes later. "Ouchie." She started to pat her head to check for injuries as it throbbed in agonizing pain. A minute or two later, the pain subsided enough to allow for trying to get back to camp.

She blinked in surprise as she realized she knew it lay over that forbidding ridge and three miles through the dense forest. "Huh." Taylor looked around with blinking, brown eyes and frowned. No red and gold armor bits. Did she imagine it? She shrugged. She just wanted to go back to camp. Maybe call Emma.

It took her another hour, but she made it back to camp. And got yelled at.

She skipped down the dirt road to the Ranger's office and the really, _really_ old pay phone. She plunked in two quarters and dialed a phone number by memory after waiting in line with all the other kids.

"Hey, Emma! Oh, you're with your dad? I have to tell you all about getting lost on the way to the waterfall. Where are you driving-" Taylor blinked as she heard Alan shout something staying in the car and the ABB. "Emma? EMMA?"

The line disconnected. Taylor stared at the handset as if she could not understand it.

"Hey, move it or lose it, chatterbox!" the girl behind her called out.

What could she do? She needed to do something. Tell the counselor? And then call the police? But she didn't know where Emma and her dad _were_. She needed a computer and a connection to the internet so she could hack the cell phone companies. No, still too long. Taylor started to stumble towards the nearest counselor.

She frowned as she kept walking. What did insufficient nanite structures even mean?

"Miss Zimmerman! I was on the phone with my friend who was driving with her dad when he started yelling about ABB and being cut off and then the phone disconnected and I'm really worried and I don't know what to do and I don't think-"

"Breathe, Taylor, breathe," Zimmerman said as she pulled out her cell phone. "I'm going to call the police and we are going to tell them everything you can remember."

An hour later, Taylor finally found out that Emma and her father were safe and sound after the ABB attack.

"Thank you, Anne! Tell your sister that I was worried and I'll see in a few days," Taylor said as she finished talking to the older sister. With a tap on the red phone button, he disconnected. "Thanks, Miss Z!"

"Would you like for me to call your dad to pick you up so you can be with your friend?" Zimmerman asked her gently.

Taylor opened her mouth to tell her no when she really thought about it. "That would be awesome and incredibly and thank you very very very much, Missus Zimmerman! I really appreciate it and oh my gosh I need to go pack and tell everyone in Cabin Four goodbye!"

* * *

"EMMA!" the incredibly skinny girl shouted as she tackled her best friend with far too much strength.

"I need to breathe, Taylor," the redhead whined, although the smile on her face said otherwise.

Taylor checked over her face and limbs for any wounds. "Oh, your hair! We should get your mom to take us to the hairdresser and maybe look at tinting your hair and there was this really neat shorter hair style I think you would look good for your next photoshoot at Charlie's, who I still think is kind of creepy because he only has teen models-"

"Sure, Taylor," Emma interjected to stop the tide of Taylor babble.

"Mrs. Barnes!" Taylor shouted as she grabbed her friend's hand and dragged her out of her bedroom. "We need to go to the hairdresser now and fix Emma's hair so that she quits being twitchy!"

"Taylor, I have an appointment for tomorrow," Zoe Barnes said at the breakfast table as she looked up from her newspaper. She frowned as she looked at her youngest daughter. "But I think you might be right."

"Zoe-Mobile!" Taylor called out while pointing away towards the car. "Come on Emma, I call shotgun!" With that she took off in a sprint, but took the long way.

Emma slid into the front seat and stuck her tongue out at her friend. "Too slow!" She gave a tentative smile to her friend.

Half an hour later, Taylor sighed as the hair dryer lowered into place about Emma's head. She looked at the dryer for the next seat. "Why is the power switch taped over? Is it broken and you are waiting for a repairman? Or do you have to send it someplace, because that sounds expensive, especially with the Boat Graveyard and the state of the trainyard-"

Amber interjected with, "Yes, well, it's going to be a few months before we can afford to have the warranty serviceman come in."

"Do you mind if I look? I've been interested in electronics a little bit, my... mom actually encouraged that and gave me one of those do it yourself kits and I just want to see if I have any idea and what isn't working anymore? Does it still turn on, but doesn't blow or doesn't have any heat?" Taylor asked in a breathless rush.

"It doesn't ever warm up. There's a toolbox in that closet over there," Amber said idly as she waited for Emma's hair to dry.

Taylor returned with the little toolbox. She first verified and unplugged the device, then she took it apart with deft, sure movements. The girl absently tried to push her glasses further up her nose. "Ah! Found it! Looks like the circuit board has a burned out resistor. It's like a half cent part, but they'll probably just replace the board." She memorized the part number, and then put it back together and returned the tools. "Let me write the number down and we are set. You might even be able to buy the part for dirt cheap." Taylor gave her a wide grin.

"My, what a little Tinker you are. Although I heard a rumor they can't fix normal tech to specification," Amber said with a grin as she patted Taylor's shoulder. "Say, would you like to earn a little extra money if I can get the part?"

"Sure! You have my phone number on file, right?" she replied.

Zoe raised an eyebrow at Taylor. If she remembered correctly, her deceased friend gave that to Taylor for her tenth birthday and Taylor had barely used it. "So are you thinking about getting into an electronics class at Winslow, Taylor?"

"That's not a bad idea at all. I'll have to talk to Dad about that. Thanks, Mrs. Barnes!"

* * *

An hour later, Taylor and Emma walked home from the ice cream store near their houses. Up ahead, they both tensed up at the sight of a girl standing in the shade of a tree in Emma's yard. The dark skinned girl studied Emma and then Taylor with cool, indifferent eyes.

"You bounced back fast after that ABB attack," she said mysteriously. "I expected that of a fighter like you."

"Who are you?" Emma asked in confusion.

Taylor blinked as she analyzed the situation. "Well, she's not you or your dad and she doesn't look like she's ABB, so that leaves an onlooker or that black wearing hero. And you mentioned that all the onlookers ran away when the cape showed up." Taylor studied her closely and wondered at her self composure.

"You don't do that. There are rules and outing a cape's ID is a bad idea." The new girl glared at her.

"Hey! You were the one that came here and dropped the sly hint. It's not our fault if we figured it out. Why are you here?" Emma called out and unconsciously stepped up to defend her friend like she always did.

"Hah. I knew you were a fighter," the girl said. She turned to Taylor and then suddenly side stepped Emma and went to trip the gawky girl to the ground. The world spun around and then she found herself spitting out grass. "Wow, that was cool. How did you do that?"

"Huh," Taylor said as she stared at her hands. "It's, uh, all about leverage?"

The girl stuck her hand out to be pulled up off the ground. "I totally thought you were some little weakingly. Man, I did not see that coming. Your friend was pretty badass in that alley, too! I'm Sophia, by the way. You guys are going to Winslow?"

Emma frowned and then smoothed out her face almost automatically. "We start there next month."

Taylor stepped back as she felt really suspicious for the first time in her life. She narrowed her eyes at Sophia. Her eyes widened as she realized something. "You watched her being threatened and nearly maimed!" She glared at the girl.

"And showed she was a fighter and worth saving-"

"You can leave," Taylor said in a strong voice. "You're no hero. Heroes protect the _weak_ and the innocent. Do you even know how to hero?"

"What did you say, bitch?" Sophia said as she moved closer to fail to loom over the taller girl.

"A hero wouldn't watch to see if someone would fight back _before_ they save them," Taylor declared.

Emma stared at them, then nodded. "We won't say anything about this, but you aren't welcome here, Sophia. At least not with that attitude."

"Fuck you and the horse you rode in on!" Sophia said as she stomped off.

* * *

Emma pulled Taylor into her bedroom and slammed the door. She whirled around. "Okay, what the hell was that?"

"I-I don't know! I thought it was just a dream yesterday when I found this Hero armor and then I tried on the helmet and it popped up _Intruder_ and I was all like uh oh and then my head really hurt and when I woke up all the Hero armor was gone and I was still lost but I could figure out where the camp was and I walked all the way back and Mrs. Bradley yelled at me for getting lost so I was all upset for a few hours and I thought it was all a dream then I called you and started to tell you about getting lost when the ABB attacked you and your dad and I was so scared but I had to do something so I ran over to Miss Zimmerman and called the police and finally found out from Anne that you were alright and did I mention I was so scared and I don't know what is going on and I think I might have super powers?"

Her best friend parsed through the babble. "Super powers? Really?"

"I think so? Because all of a sudden I understand everything electronics. I mean like how to build it. I'm pretty sure if I had the right tools I could have just fixed that hair dryer. I mean by fixing the circuit board which I didn't even know you could do and then I did that judo flip and I've never done judo before so I don't even know how I know it's judo." Taylor took a deep breath. "I don't understand this at all."

"That's your excuse for getting contacts and not needing glasses?" Emma asked skeptically.

Her raven haired friend looked confused for a second and then started to fumble around on her face looking for her glasses. "I'm not wearing glasses? This is what having good eyesight is like? This is like all sorts of clear and neat, like those HD TVs that-"

"Stop. Taylor... You think you really have powers? That you're a Tinker?" She still sounded skeptical.

"Yeah! Well, I think so. I mean, should I think about trying to make a weapon and oh my god I can suddenly build missiles, guns, repulsors and flame throwers which are totally illegal and against the Geneva conventions and HOW DO I KNOW ALL THIS?" she screamed out in a panic.

"That sounds like a Tinker alright," the redhead said with wide eyes. "What's a repulsor?"

"It's a weapon and a flight thruster. And I can probably make one out of basic parts. Which is cool. Because that means I can make something that flies." Taylor turned to her friend. "Do you think your dad will mind if we use his tools in the garage?"

"Um, we'll need to clean up, but I don't see why not," Emma replied.

* * *

Alan Barnes pulled into his driveway at half past one o'clock. It had taken him a few hours to make sure that the other partners could take over his workload for a week or two as his boss had agreed to the family leave.

The garage door opened and Alan found himself staring at his daughter and her best friend working on something on his workbench. He pulled in halfway, stopped and waved back to his daughter. He had to wiggle out of his car.

"So, what did you break?" he asked in a teasing voice.

"Nothing, Dad! Jeez, you always think the worst of me," Emma replied in a tart voice. "Taylor's just seeing if she can make something. And she is making _something_."

"Done!" Taylor said. "Just need to figure out a power source. It needs a lot power, but I can at least warm it up with current from the wall." She started splicing a power cord to the metal bits and bobs in front of her. Then she plugged it into the wall.

Her hand slipped through the hoops with a loop around her hand and a large, round piece in the palm of it. She then twisted a slide-level slowly, with a whine of power matching her action. With a whirring 'toom' sound she started to slide across the ground as light shot out from the palm of her hand.

"It works!" Taylor exclaimed happily. Then she got a befuddled look on her face. "So what did that armor do to me?"

"That not-Hero armor you said you found and lost in the woods?" Emma asked as she leaned against the wall.

"Ahem. Taylor, unplug that and go inside. I'm going to call Danny and have him come over so we can talk," Alan ordered a bit nervously.

"Oh, right. Yeah, Dad is going to be so mad, especially since I didn't tell him first. But I didn't know for sure and I thought I was just nuts and then I realized I didn't need to wear glasses-" Taylor started in on her babble as Emma sighed and dragged her inside.

"Come on 'Hero'," Emma said with a roll of her eyes and a grin.

* * *

Half an hour later, Danny stared at the changeling that looked like his daughter. "You're a Tinker?"

"I mean, I guess? Or that armor did something to me, but it disappeared and it was so cool looking and now I've got ideas for armor. Like really cool armor. Some even made of a swarm of nanobots powered by a sort of clean fusion generator!" she said as she bounced in her seat.

"Oh, lord." The balding man rubbed his forehead. "I don't suppose you have any way to monetize that, do you? Because funding a Tinker sounds really expensive."

Alan patted his friend on his back. "There there."

Emma started to laugh and actually felt her traumatic attack fading in her mind a little.

"Smart phones? No, too much overhead and requires too much headway. Just need one technology that I can improve." Taylor muttered to herself. Suddenly her eyes lit up. "Batteries!" She exclaimed.

"Huh?" Emma asked.

"He asked what I could make that we could turn into a money maker. Batteries are something that I can build. I can even improve them and patent it," she exclaimed happily.

"They don't let Tinkers patent their 'inventions' because only a Tinker could build it." Alan gave her a shrug.

"Why? I'm sure I could teach Emma to make one that's at least twice as good as what we have with the tools on hand." Wide, brown eyes blinked and looked between the two adults.

"If you can do that, you'll be the most unique Tinker in the world," Danny said with a smile. "So what's this about an armor?"

"I don't know," Taylor shrugged. "I just found it while following a stream because I got lost on the way to the waterfall and there was this not-Hero helmet that I tried on. I think that's when I lost my glasses." Taylor took a breath and then let it out. "I think it did something, because it talked about a brain scan."

"I think we should try to find this armor. Do you think you could take us back to where you found it?" Danny asked.

"I think so?"

Four hours later, Emma started to wonder about her sanity. And her friend's. And their parent's. At least they had shade to help slightly with the heat of the summer day.

"There," Taylor pointed. "That's the stream, and I recognize that big rock and that's the crater." She hopped from rock to rock to get to the location in the middle of the stream. "My glasses! I can't believe I didn't even notice." She pulled the square frames out of the water. "Oh, busted. Good thing I don't need them anymore."

Danny looked around, but did not spot any red or gold metal. "Hmm."

"Let me check with my metal detector. This is more fun than just using it for a hobby, anyways." Alan wiped his brow and flicked the power switch on the metal detector he had carried from his car. Better than looking for coins on the beach, at least.

Eventually they found a few pieces of metal and even a full armored finger. Taylor stuck her finger in it and tried to bend it. "Bigger hands that are probably about your dad's size, Emma. Here, Mr. Barnes, why don't you try it?"

Alan did not look happy at that idea, but did put it on and flexed it. "So the not-Hero armor was real. Did someone come and take it back?"

"How are 'we' supposed to know?" Emma asked.

"By looking, of course. There aren't any footprints other than our own," Danny said as he finished walking around the group at about ten to fifteen paces out. "So unless they flew or teleported, no one else walked out." He blinked as the other three people stared at him. With a sigh, he continued. "I learned tracking as a Boy Scout and from my grandfather before he died. He liked to hunt, even if he was too old for it by the time I turned ten."

That caused Taylor to blink and her thoughts drifted to her departed mother. For seconds, she just stood there and then she tried to move past it. "So, nothing?"

"Not nothing," Alan said. He waggled the armored finger at them. "We know the the armor exists, and it is red and gold like Taylor told us, so we have information showing her memory wasn't tampered with. We may want to have her checked out to make sure that some villain didn't tamper with her head."

"Oh, that would be bad, wouldn't it?" Taylor said as her friend's eyes widened almost comically.

"I'll have to see what my insurance covers," Danny said with a frown.

"Or get the PRT to check." Alan frowned at that. "If they find out she's a parahuman, they'll try to get her to join the Wards."

Taylor blinked as she looked between the two of them.

"We'll look into that. I'd rather keep Taylor out of that, even if she isn't much younger than most of them." Danny looked away, lost in his own thoughts of his departed wife.

"Can we go back to the car?" Emma complained. "There's a reason I didn't want to go to a summer camp that doesn't include air conditioning."

That got the three others to laugh at her, which even managed to get her to smile a bit.


	2. Nothing Up My Sleeve

"And that's it. Hold still while we pull you out, okay?" the PRT medical technician said.

Taylor nodded even as she studied the MRI machine. She could think of at least eight ways to improve it-

"Well, congrats on not being a Parahuman," the tech said. "We found no signs of a Corona Potentia and/or Gemma." Even with it being ever so slightly fuzzy, it looked obviously empty of those brain nodes. "We also did not find any cybernetics. So that means you didn't get messed with by someone like Bonesaw."

"Oh, that would be bad. I like my brain not being messed with by a villain. Does she really do things like that?" Taylor asked with her large, brown eyes wide in worry.

"Worse, but that isn't stuff for kids," he explained.

"Hey! I'm fourteen, you know!"

He just rolled his eyes. "Okay, off you go. Your father should be finished with the incident report paperwork. Poor guy."

Taylor nodded as she grabbed her backpack and disappeared into a bathroom to change into her clothing and put away her hospital gown. Minutes later, she found her dad talking to a couple of uniformed people in PRT uniform. "Dad!"

Danny looked up and smiled. "Almost done, Taylor." He turned back to the investigating officers. "Is there anything else?"

"No, that should do it," the female officer said. "If you find any more parts, please pass them along." She held up the bag with the metal finger and two (of the ten) parts they had found.

"Thank you," he replied. Danny mussed her hair slightly. "And I'm glad to hear they didn't find anything. Shall we head home and get some supper?"

"Yeah! But not pizza. How about chinese?" Taylor asked.

Minutes later in the car, Taylor pulled out a spiral-bound notebook and started sketching. After a minute, she realized all the things that she could fix in the MRI would be too expensive. "Dang it." But medical tech would likely be the best choice. With Medhall here, she might be able to figure out something to make money.

"Problem?" Danny asked.

"No, I just couldn't figure out a cheap way to make MRI's better." Taylor pouted.

"Well, while you were getting scanned, Alan brought over his old notebook computer. Said it gave him an excuse to buy a new one with more Dragontech in it."

"That will come in handy!" She cheered up with that bit of information.

"And I'm having our internet upgraded. I think you'll need it."

Taylor nodded eagerly. "Yeah, that will help a lot. I might need to use the desktop computer in Mom's study. Is that alright? I mean, it's Mom's, but I don't think she would want us to just not use it."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. How about we turn that into 'our' office now?"

"Uh huh! We need a bigger table or desk, so I could lay out blueprints and-" she continued on as Danny listened with half an ear.

The PRT obviously missed something, because his Taylor from before liked reading books and going over to Emma's house to hang out. This new Taylor had added a love of technology to that.

* * *

Taylor frowned two days later as she looked over at her mom's old computer and then to her (new to her) notebook with medical products visible. A long list of items lay on her notepad, with each scratched out until half way. "That's it." She grinned at the item as she scanned down the rest. A couple might work, but this pacemaker battery looked the easiest to build.

She started sketching out on paper and writing up a list.

"Boo!" Emma said right behind her an hour later.

Taylor shrieked in a momentary panic. "Don't _do_ that!" she said as she glared at her friend.

The redhead smiled at Taylor's reaction, and leaned over to look at the rather arcane looking instructions. "So are you designing a bomb?"

"No, I'm building a small battery about the size of a quarter. Just need about two hundred dollars in parts and about two days worth of work to build it. Or well, it will when I finish it," Taylor replied in a gloomy voice.

"That girl Sophia tried again, thinks we would be cool friends. I tried to not be rude, but I told her until we know her better, we're not going to hang out." She shrugged her shoulders. "I figure if she's not a raging bitch at school, we can see."

"I don't think she's all there. But maybe she could tell us more about the heroes and villain thing? PHO has something about a new cape with the Empire, some sort of Trump," Taylor said. "I've got a little crawler program on computers that checks for mentions of new capes in Brockton Bay or big events."

"Why do that? Taylor, you are not planning on going out and being a hero, are you?" her best friend asked.

"Not right now. No way I could afford something that would _let_ me be a hero. But maybe after a while? I have so many ideas, but I think I'm missing little pieces." But she had the titles to books that might fill in the spots, which confused her. What sort of Tinker needed to read theses or technical papers from professors?

"But eventually? That's kind of crazy talk, you know," Emma said and then bit on her bottom lip nervously.

"I'm not going to go out until I am totally normal gun and grenade proof-"

"You can do that?" Emma asked, her eyes growing wide.

"Armor, like Armsmaster. But better."

Emma gave her a skeptical look. "Isn't he one of the best Tinkers in the world?"

"He has to use a motorcycle to get around!" Taylor said disgustedly. "You remember that repulsor I made? I'll be able to fly with that!" Taylor said excitedly, but then slumped. "But first I need to get enough palladium, so I can make an ARC reactor and then we'll have enough energy to run the basics."

"The basics?" the redhead asked.

"A lab and forge, then a full set of power armor for a few years." Taylor started tapping on the crude drawing she had on a large sheet of paper. And the fifty two steps to make the very small battery.

* * *

Max Anders looked up at the knock on his door. "Come in," he called out as he scowled at the spreadsheet on his computer screen.

It opened to reveal the head of technology development, Marianne Foster. "Hello, Max!" she said with a winning smile. "I've got an odd offer that I figure I should run by you before I have a small team work on a project for a few days."

"What's odd about it?" he asked as he breathed a sigh of relief at the break from trying to keep Medhall afloat in this damn city.

"I have a copy of a patented battery manufacturing document that, if right, has ten times the energy storing ability of our best medical batteries for our pacemakers and last five times as long. I've looked over it and the science seems sound. So I'd like to fund a small test and schedule a whole week to devote to this. But..."

"-it could be a Tinker device and we might not be able to replicate it," Max said as he thought it over. "Ten times the power and five times longer lasting? We would become the _premium_ pacemaker battery maker, wouldn't we?"

She nodded. "Exactly. It would be a huge boon to our national and international reputation."

The CEO of Medhall spun his very expensive (leather covered and memory foam padded) office chair and looked out to the morning view of Brockton Bay. "Let's run it as a team building retreat and hit a couple of nails. If it doesn't work, it's just a team building experience. If it works, we can spin it for even better PR."

* * *

A week later, Max's secretary paged him. "Mr. Hebert and Mr. Barnes to see you, Mr. Anders."

"Please, send them in Veronica," Max replied. He switched his screen to the notes from the 'engineering retreat'.

The two men stepped in and stepped up to shake his hand.

"Danny Hebert? You don't happen to work for the Dock Workers Union, do you?" Max Anders asked as he stood to meet them.

"In human resources, trying to get jobs for our guys." Danny gave him a shrug. "This is a friend of the family that I asked to help with the contract."

"Alan Barnes, of Dewitt, Dallon, Johnson and Barnes; attorney," the lawyer said.

"Oh? So you work with Carol Dallon? Brandish?" Max asked in feigned curiosity.

"She works over on criminal and parahuman law while I'm over divorce law." Alan gave him a shrug.

Max sat back and then gestured to them to sit down across the desk from him. "So, Marianne Foster, my VP of Technology, says that this battery is revolutionary and is perfectly reproducible. Quite the game changer. Your letter mentioned that you wanted a modest up front fee and then to sell a license to us for manufacturing."

"At a very heavily discounted rate for ten years, the life of the patent. While we retain the right to license, the license fees will be quite a bit higher and can not maliciously compete with you. Really, you are doing most of the legwork, but you will probably get the most benefit," Danny explained.

"So non-direct competitors would be-?" Max asked as he leaned back in his seat.

"Car makers, computer manufacturers and the like. Batteries are used in a lot of things," Danny noted.

"Hmm. Understandable. Let me call legal in so we can go over a contract."

Two hours later, Danny opened the front door to his house. He looked over at the TV and the girl sitting in front of it. "And why are you vegging out in front of the TV, Emma?"

The stressed looking redhead lifted her eyes off the TV. "Oh, hey Mr. Hebert."

"You don't look okay there," he said cautiously.

"I'm fine."

"Where's Taylor?" the adult asked.

"I asked if I could come over to get away from Mom and my sister. She's downstairs in her... workshop," Emma said as she became a bit more animated.

"Well, the house isn't on fire, so it should all be good."

Emma chuckled a bit at that. "She's not that bad."

"We'll see." Danny headed for the stairs and walked into the basement. He blinked at the change from just this morning. "What's with the design on the wall?"

Taylor looked up. "I- I don't actually know. But I've been dreaming about it and I think it's really important. It's some sort of exotic energy power source."

"It looks broken," he noted.

"That's the problem. I think it is and I need to fix it, but I need to finish those high level college books on physics to fix it," Taylor said.

Danny blinked and then walked over to her. "You look like death warmed over."

"I feel fine, I think. I'm just hungry all the time." She pointed to several bags of snacks at the end of the work table. She stood up, wobbled and keeled over unconscious.

* * *

Taylor awoke, feeling better than she had in days. A hospital bed?

"Taylor, can you hear me?"

She nodded to her dad. "What happened?"

"Your glucose levels went too low and according to the doctor, you are starving to death." Danny hugged her close like she was made of fine china.

"What? Why?" she asked.

"We don't know, but for now the doctors are saying you need to eat a huge amount of food until they can figure it out. I'm going to tell them you woke up." The father gulped loudly. "They didn't think you would."

Taylor starred in wide eyed worry as he walked away. "What is going on?"

 _"Emergency tertiary power systems require high quantities of sugar to run until either repair or replacement of primary or secondary power."_

She blinked. "Status on primary and secondary systems?"

 _"Mark X arc reactor has two cracks and insufficient nanites exist for thermo-electric transfer,"_ the female voice responded.

"And... plugging you into an outlet?" Taylor asked.

A pause hung in the air. _"Your new plan, Tony, has a 95 % chance of working. Deploy a charging cable?"_

"Deploy," Taylor said, creasing her brow. Tony?

Her arm shot out and a wire _shot_ out to inject two prongs into an electrical socket. And it felt like a jolt of adrenaline coursing through her arm.

"Whoa," she said as she put her arm under the blanket to hide the wire. "How long to charge enough to be safe to leave the hospital."

 _"Two hours of charge recommended and plugging in at destination 'home'."_

"Right," she muttered to herself.

The doctors and nurses came in to check her vitals and reported her improvement. They recommended she stay overnight.

* * *

"I'd feel better if you had stayed overnight," her father said.

"I'm pretty sure I can solve this, though it might take multiple steps and more money than we have right this moment. I can possibly reuse some of the tech later, maybe even take the house totally off the grid. Okay, uh, voice? Plug in and then lets talk some math."

 _"Of course, Tony. I'm sure you are just trying to see if I'll offer my name as you have so conveniently forgotten it,"_ the voice said as it deployed another power cable.

"Except that it didn't work," Taylor said as she stopped her dad from asking a question.

 _"I'm still your Girl Friday, aren't I?"_

"I can handle that, Friday. I need to see the damage to the Mark X arc reactor-"

Blue light lit up from between her breasts from the before hidden device as a glowing wireframe hologram appeared in the air, showing a broken arc reactor. A smile blossomed on Taylor's face.

"-and with that we can get into hardware mode." Jigsaw puzzle pieces snapped together in her head as suddenly she remembered even more things. "We'll need to figure out how to weld it without messing with the composition and crystallization. Throw up the thermal properties of the metal core and... the power levels of your holographic projector." Taylor trotted towards the basement door. "Oh, and Dad? I think I need about six hamburgers and a plate of fries!"

"Um, sure?" He blinked as she disappeared.

Taylor's eyes flicked from one equation to another. "We need more power. I was afraid of that." She grabbed a bag of nuts and started to snack. "At least two gigajoules per second. Which means either buying a lot of electricity from the local power company and triggering all the PRT flags or I need to make a basic ARC reactor. Which needs enough palladium that the purchase will trigger the PRT flags." She flopped back in the seat. "Hey, Dad? You wouldn't know where to get about two grams of palladium, um, unofficially?"

"I'm sorry? What?" he asked as he walked down the stairs. "That's a couple thousand dollars."

"It's about sixty bucks, Dad. But the PRT watches out for purchases. Wait, I've got an idea! Can you just buy a couple of catalytic converters? It'll take longer-"

"Taylor, I know a guy that knows a guy. Give me a few hours and I'll have your palladium. Do you need anything else?" he asked with a roll of his eyes.

"High quality copper, a ceramic insulator... Let me just write down a list."

* * *

Twelve hours later, Taylor hummed along to Metallica. She paused in soldering a circuit and grabbed a large handful of nuts and started to chew. A bit more solder and the circuit lay finished.

"Finally," she said as she activated the circuit.

Blue-white light grew in the cylindrical device as Taylor's smirk grew in equal measure.

"What is that?" Emma asked from the corner of the basement she sat in. And had sat in for two hours.

"Mark 1 palladium ARC reactor. Basically a miniature, clean nuclear reaction at room temperatures. But don't call it cold fusion, it's much better than that." Taylor held out her hand. "Friday, link up and power up to minimum active functions."

"You're the boss, T," Friday replied with the new nickname Taylor wanted her to use openly for anyone to hear in the room.

Taylor sucked in a breath as it felt as if she had just slammed down two power drinks. "Whoa! Remind me to see what this is doing to my physiology, okay Friday?"

"Would you like to specify a specific time frame? This is your fourth request for a reminder," the A.I. noted.

"Yeah, two weeks." Taylor spun around to look at her notebook she used for 'notes' to read. "Time until capacitors reach enough charge to run the holographic laser?"

"Thirty seconds," the A.I. replied in a helpful tone.

"What are you doing?" Emma asked as she curled up into the corner a little more.

Taylor looked over and took a real look at Emma. She stood up and walked over and hugged her friend even as the wire trailed behind her. "I'm sorry, Emma. Am I scaring you? I don't mean to do it, but I get these weird urges and flashes of memories and then I have to look at something else to remind me I'm Taylor and not this Tony guy-"

Emma hugged her desperately for five seconds then released it. "I'm getting better, T. It's just not terribly fast. I'm not going to say no to some self defense Tinker tech though." She smiled at her friend.

The other girl nodded. "So ready for school tomorrow?"

"Yeah. I can't believe you are taking every type of shop or technical class you can," the redhead said with a pout.

"Easy A's for me. And a reason for buying supplies. I've got this idea for an armor that will even make Armsmaster notice me. In a good way, I mean-"

"Capacitor is at 100 % charge," Friday interrupted with. "Recommend that the repairs to the Mark X reactor be done within two minutes or a meltdown will occur."

"Shit. Thanks, Friday." Taylor ran over to the cobbled together holographic laser. She double checked her information. "Ejecting the Mark X." She pulled the damaged device from her chest and set it into a vice to lock it into exact position. "Calibrate."

"Calibrating. Complete and activating the laser."

Lasers flickered from a dozen activation points and carefully welded the cracks from the inside to the outside surface in four dimensions.

Taylor watched the counter and then carefully sprayed liquid nitrogen in exact amounts and duration to flash cool the welds. "And the results?"

"Activating the Mark X," Friday announced. "92.554 % functional, self-repair systems initiated. It is safe to return the ARC reactor to its primary housing.

"Okay." Taylor flicked a finger on the device, finding it cold but not dangerous to the touch. It slide into the isosceles trapezoid socket and the girl gasped as her whole body filled with power. "Whoa. I feel better than ever and my head... it's amazing." Did this thing give her super powers all on its own? "Friday, how long until we can regenerate the lost nanites?"

"Six months, twelve days, eight hours and two minutes at current rates. Access to appropriate rare earth metals will decrease the time dramatically, T."

"Yeah, not on my budget." Taylor smiled. "But now I can get started on my first _hero_ project."


	3. A Lass of Iron

Taylor hummed under her breath in her last class of the day, introductory electronics. She and Mrs. Bower had an understanding; as long as Taylor handed in her work, she could work on her own projects. Taylor planned to see if she could test out to switch to the advanced electronics class in January if at all possible.

The bell rang to signal the end of class (well, actually buzzed as it was a buzzer, but semantics!) so Taylor finished her project and quickly cleaned up and headed to her locker. The tacky pumpkins and bats decorating the hall _almost_ made it festive for Halloween in two weeks.

"Hey, Taylor," Emma called out even as she glanced at the girl next to her warily.

"Hi, Emma. What do you want, Sophia?" she asked.

"Just wanted to see how you two were doing. You seem to be the only worthwhile people here in Shithole High," the outsider said with a smirk. "It's the weekend, and I figured we could go to the Boardwalk and _talk_." She looked at Taylor closely. "I talked with a couple of the kids from Millbrook Junior High and none of them mentioned that you liked electronics or crafts."

"Oh yes, because my high school electronics project is secretly Tinker tech," Taylor replied in a barbed tone even as she made sure no one listened in to them. Being ignored as Freshmen did have its odd perks. And it was a robotic control module for a manufacturing arm. Not Tinker tech.

"You're shitting me, aren't you?" Sophia said with a deadpan look.

"That would be yes," Taylor rolled her eyes. "Because I'm not a Tinker." At worst, Taylor thought it likely the Thinker category applied to herself. Because she understood engineering and science like no ones business… she also knew more about business than before (not that that was saying much, but still.)

"Taylor, we should go. I know you have your homework, but we haven't gone out shopping or to see a movie in forever. Like before your summer camp and the- the- alley," Emma said as she flinched at Taylor looked at her.

The second dragged out forever. "You're right. I haven't been that great of a friend. I'm sorry, Emma." Taylor stepped up and hugged her friend. Emma only flinched slightly.

"You're a fighter. I could show you some tricks," Sophia offered. "I'm sure between the two of us, we can help you at least get away from some thugs."

"Maybe tomorrow?" Taylor asked. "Eight or so in the morning?"

"Hell, no. Ten thirty at the earliest. I have plans tonight." Sophia said with a smirk.

The girls walked outside to where the Zoe-mobile sat at the curb, Sophia turning towards the bus stop.

"Who was that?" Emma's mother asked as they piled into her car.

"A new friend, maybe?" Emma said in an uncertain tone of voice.

"Pretty sure she has some issues," Taylor muttered even as she reviewed everything she knew about Parahumans and trigger events. Some light reading last night.

"So Taylor, I understand you are working on a project?"

"Nothing really too special," Taylor replied carefully. She shot her friend a look.

Emma shrugged. "Can I get a little extra money so I can buy a new skirt?" she asked to divert her mother.

"You've already bought a new blouse, young lady," Zoe replied.

"But Mom! I found this great new green skirt that is just so cute and I want to be able to wear it to my next modeling gig," Emma protested.

"No!"

Taylor just listened to them arguing the whole way to her house. She popped open her door on the driver's side. "Thanks, Mrs. B! I'm going to go ask my dad about the movie, okay?"

"Sure!" Emma called out. "Give me a call when you do!"

Taylor then trotted into the house as Friday unlocked the door with a directional, encoded signal to the special lock Taylor had installed. Once the front door closed behind her, she dropped her backpack on the couch and headed downstairs. She would double check her finished homework later.

"Friday, how many more hours of fabrication at the DWU's shop do you think we need for full functionality?" she asked.

"We still have eight more hours left for your Mark 1, T," Friday said in a confused tone.

"New world, a new start, Friday. So we are starting over." Taylor tapped her forefinger to her lips. "Can the remains of the Mark 51 bridge the gap in functionality until we can complete the major work on the Mark 1?" She turned to look at the seven foot armor laying out on a heavy wood table.

"It would actually increase functionality by 3 %," Friday replied.

"Okay, Dumber. Let's get some red paint going," Taylor ordered the mechanical arm attached to the house's bearing wall.

* * *

"I'm not very thrilled with this," Danny said as he drove his truck down the road. An earbud and high tech glasses let him see with night vision and talk to his daughter in the back.

They had argued (and nearly fought) over this point of contention for weeks. Taylor refused to budge as she knew she could do good taking down the gangs. She would not just do donations with her new wealth from her patents. Patents would not stop the decline of the city. It would take at least six years to build up a credible business.

Taylor relaxed as she laid back and watched the various views on her HUD. "I'll be fine, dad. I've got the PRT, Protectorate, Wards and New Wave on speed dial. Friday knows to call them if I get in over my head. I am likely only to run into normal gang members anyways. And I have escape plans. All the escape plans. There's the alley between two empty warehouses I picked for tonight."

"Right, I see them. Friday, keep T. safe and alive, okay?" Danny gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned white.

"Yes, Danny."

The older truck turned between the two warehouse. The canvas rolled back as the truck's tailgate dropped. Electromagnets reversed and shot the seven and a half foot tall and five feet wide, red and gold Iron Man armor up in an angle to land on its feet with a clunk. It's faceless helmet looked around.

"I'm deployed. Keep yourself safe, Dad," Taylor replied as she jumped through a hole into one of the warehouses. "Okay, Friday. Let's look for some crime to stop."

"Calculating. Deploying two eyes in the sky drones," Friday explained even as the two drones unfolded into their quadcopter glory.

Half an hour later, Taylor had her first target of the night. Three gang members, tentatively identified as Cracked Skulls. Friday brought up the public information. One minor parahuman named Torrent and about ten actual gang members.

Two blocks away, the situation changed as a shirtless man with a metal mask appeared and walked down the street to the thugs.

"85 % match to Lung. Warning, this armor may not be able to defeat the threat without severe structural damage.

"Dial PRT hotline," Taylor said as the armor started to tromp along faster.

"Parahuman Response Team, what is your emergency?" the man answered on the other side of the line after two rings.

"I have a visual on the villain Lung about to start a gang fight on Colby Lane and 34th. At least three normal gang members from Cracked Skulls," Taylor said as she verified the status of her voice distorter. On being good.

"If you can see that, please leave the area," the PRT dispatcher said as voices in the background started to get louder.

"I'm headed in there to keep Lung from killing someone. I'll be the big red and gold power armor," Taylor said as the armor cornered onto 34th Street.

"Confirm, please, that you are a hero intervening in a crime?"

"That is confirmed. Iron Lass is on the job," Taylor said.

Lung held up one of the last holdovers of the old order. "You will tell your boss that he will removed himself from the docks. They are ABB now." He abruptly dropped the enemy thug and looked up the street to see a very large figure approaching. His flesh rippled and he grew an inch or two as he started to walk to meet his new foe.

"Lung. Are you finished with the Cracked Skull for now?" Iron Lass said as she came to a halt forty feet away.

"You are interfering. Leave," Lung shot back, his voice lowering and almost growling.

Iron Lass pointed her palm cannons at him. "I am not going to let you maim or kill anyone."

Lung responded with an explosion of fire that shot out and engulfed the armored figure. He would melt his foe-

Two particle cannons shrieked to life and blasted him off of his feet and down the street.

"Or we can do this the hard way," Iron Lass said as she started to tromp forward through the flames.

"Who are you? Who do you think you are?" the Changer shouted as he flipped to his feet and started to meet his foes charge.

"You can call me Iron Lass," she answered and then shot forward in a repulsor jet powered arc and punched Lung so hard he crumpled the abandoned car on the other side of the road when he slammed into it.

A stream of off yellow liquid slammed into Lung from the side. "Hot damn, time to melt some iguana."

Taylor took a look at Torrent and sighed. A logo on a T-shirt, leather pants and jacket with a mask barely qualified as a costume, in her mind. And his acid (or base?) only sizzled the paint job of the car Lung pulled himself out of.

"I'm gunna kill uuuu," Lung said.

"You do realize you are barely annoying him now, right?" Iron Lass said to the yellow-themed villain Torrent.

"Fuck you! My power is great!" Torrent said even as he felt a small stab of fear. He focused and sent out a much small stream of liquid that missed Lung and burned through the top of the damaged car. "Shit! How can something so big move so fast-"

Lung ducked low and sprinted at Torrent, only to feel concrete shattering repulsors slam into his side and sending him skidding through the corner of an abandoned building.

"Torrent, just run! I'm pretty sure he wants to put you down to make the Cracked Skulls history," Iron Lass said as she tromped forward to try and tackle Lung further into the alley.

Lung sidestepped the clumsy lunge and tripped her into a dumpster. "Fooo."

"Ow," Taylor said as she shrugged off the hit. Iron Lass stood up and then swatted Lung with the large trash dumpster to little effect. She toggled the unibeam to full power and sent Lung skidding across the ground. "What does it take to keep him down?"

For her ears only, Friday replied with, "Lethal attacks such as the laser cutters to his cranium before he reaches ten feet tall."

Taylor sighed. "You mean the laser cutters that I've designed for the Mark 2?" She tromped out of the alleyway even as Torrent finally decided to run away.

Friday finally responded. "Perhaps a change in tactic?"

Fire engulfed the Iron Lass armor with twice the intensity from before. "Yeah, time to retreat." Repulsors whined to full life as Taylor balanced on four thrusters into the sky.

"Come 'ack!" Lung yelled as his fire petered out.

She shot off into the distance and around the block to see vehicles with red and purple flashing lights approaching down the major roads.

By the time they arrived, only a small fire and a couple of wrecked cars remained.

Armsmaster stopped his bike and popped the kickstand. He left the emergency flashers on as he went to scout the area. He spun around as he deployed his high tech halberd, relaxing when he saw who it was. "Iron Lass? You look a little scorched," he called out.

The red and gold armor roared as it landed about thirty feet away. "Just scuffed the paint job." She tromped over at a walk.

Armsmaster looked over the armor and found it very intriguing. "How long have you been a Tinker?"

"Oh, less than six months," she said as she ballparked a higher figure.

"That's rather good for a first public appearance. Most Tinkers are usually form over function. You obviously want to be a hero, so have you thought about joining the Protectorate?"

Taylor winced. "Um, maybe after I finish high school?"

Armsmaster paused, then shook his head. "Two in one week." He huffed in obvious annoyance. "So obviously it's tough, flies and has blasters."

"It's a basic armor. Pretty sure it can't even make MACH 2, and would ice up-" Iron Lass suddenly had a flashback to falling through the air as a dead armor dragged her down to Earth due to icing on the outer suit. "I need to make some sort of anti-icing layer or armor." She muttered to herself.

 _"Taylor, are you alright?"_ Danny asked as he drove down the deserted roads of the docks.

"I'm fine, Dad. Ran into a parahuman, but I disengaged before it became too dangerous. Talking to Armsmaster right now.

The leader of the Protectorate huffed in irritation again. "You do know that the gangs are going to try and recruit you?"

Iron Lass shrugged her shoulders. "I'm taking precautions, and even out of armor, I'm not defenseless. I think that Lung was going to take out the Cracked Skulls."

"That would eliminate all but one of the minor gangs in the docks. I'll have to bring that up, as the ABB getting uncontested control of the Docks would not be good for anyone. Do you have a contact phone number?" he asked.

"Not yet, but I'm going to get verified on PHO tonight. Still have another half hour of patrolling, then I'm going to be heading home." She waved to him and started to walk off.

Armsmaster nodded, but went back to his crime scene.

Ten minutes later, Iron Lass picked up the noise of two men threatening an older man. It only took her a moment's observation to realize they planned to beat him up and rob him of everything of worth. Including his shoes and jacket.

She stopped her quiet walk and started to tromp. "You are under arrest, dirtbags," Iron Lass warned as she stepped out of the shadows like some battered, squat war machine from hell.

"Cao Ni Ma Ge Bi!" the older asian thug shouted as he fumbled for a knife.

"That was really stupid," Iron Lass said as she suddenly sped up and picked him off the ground even as she knocked the other thug down. "Friday, call 911 and let them know I have a couple of muggers here for pickup."

Zhang Wei swore even more violently and tried to break the metal giant's grip. "Screw you!"

"I'm way too young for you," she replied crossly.

A shadow flitted across in front of Iron Lass and then kicked the other thug in the side hard as she materialized. "And you aren't going anywhere either, shithead!" Shadow Stalker said. She smacked his upper back with the butt of her hunting crossbow. Dark eyes looked out from the black painted hockey mask. "And shit, aren't you big. Going to call yourself Hero 6?"

"The name's Iron Lass. And there are currently two different people named Hero out there. I just happen to like red and gold. Are you finished?" she finished by asking the struggling thug in her grasp.

Shadow Stalker sniffed in amusement. "After you hand off these turds, you going to go find Oni Lee or Lung and teach them a lesson?"

"No, already tussled with Lung once tonight. I need to make a couple of anti-Lung weapons for my armor before I want to try that again." Taylor looked down at her armor. "And maybe make it a little tougher, and heat resistant." She muttered to herself.

"You're shitting me," Shadow Stalker said in disbelief.

"I could have stayed longer, but I didn't want to needlessly damage my armor when I would have to use lethal weapons I haven't built yet. Money. It all comes down to money." Iron Lass sighed.

"Cute. Well, you can deal with the pigs. I'm heading home," the vigilante said. She leaped up, turning into her shadowy form the moment her feet left the ground.

"Friday, please tell me how long the police are going to be. I'd like to get some sleep, too."

* * *

"You need to wear warmer colors, Taylor," Emma said as they walked through the mall. "With your coloration and your dark hair, you would look much better than a T-shirt and jeans."

"I'm young and not trying to look good to snag some boyfriend or something. And it's cold outside, you know," Taylor argued.

"Yo!" Sophia called out at the end of the hall that led to the food court. "What's up?"

"Just trying to impress upon Taylor the need to be well dressed at all times in public," Emma said as she tensed up.

"So you here about the cape fight last night? I heard it was some three way battle between Lung, some loser named Torrent and a new Tinker in some huge battle armor," Sophia said.

"Oh? A loser named Torrent?" Taylor asked in an innocent tone of voice.

"He's kind of a worthless blaster, from what I heard. I heard the new Tinker managed to fight Lung for a while," Sophia grinned as she looked at Taylor. "I'm pretty sure you were blowing smoke when you said you could make a weapon to take down Lung."

"I did not- And I just confirmed that I'm the Tinker because I wasn't interested in his armor." Taylor facepalmed. "I feel like an idiot."

Emma snorted and then covered her face with one hand in embarrassment.

"Piggy wiggy!" Taylor singsonged out.

"You promised you wouldn't do that any more!" the redhead whined.

"I said I wouldn't if you didn't snort!"

Sophia frowned lightly as she watched the childish banter. This was a dangerous Tinker?

"You're being mean, Taylor," Emma complained with a small smile on her face.

Taylor rolled her eyes. "So what do you guys want to do? I need to go to the bookstores and pick some reference books, but then we can go to a movie or even do some clothing shopping so Emma can tell us what we look good in. Or maybe something Sophia wants to do?"

The new girl blinked. "Nah, movie is fine."

"We should do laser tag or something," Emma said. "To learn to shoot blasters. For self defense, you know."

"Huh? Shit, that would be a lot better than my crossbow," Sophia said as she kept an eye out for anyone close by.

Taylor frowned as she felt a strange revulsion at making a weapon for someone she did not fully trust. "We'll see."

"A Three Musketeers movie? So action and easy on the eyes guys?" Sophia said as they wandered close enough to the theater to see the movies on the billboard.

"Better than the robot movie," Taylor replied.

"Next movie had better be a romance or comedy," Emma said lastly.

* * *

The front door creaked open. "Dad, I'm home!" Taylor called out as she quickly dumped her eight reference books.

Danny came out of the office. "How was the movie?" he asked.

"Not bad. Not _good_ , but it entertained." She flopped herself down on the couch.

"Well, then I have some good news. The realtor called back and we can pick up the key to that small shop building just on the other side of downtown. And we should have the business license for your company back in the week. So we can empty the basement out and get you a proper work space."

"Yes!" Taylor called out as she shot her fists towards the sky. "Stark Research and Development is a go! And it was near the bus line that only took a half hour ride."

"And you are positive the PRT isn't going to twig onto you being a Tinker?" her father asked in a worried tone.

"I'm not a Tinker, dad. It's just smarts." She tapped her forehead. "Tony had several degrees and could have graduated magna cum laude of MIT at _fifteen_. And he just kept adding more science and engineering as he went along. He read up on wormhole theory in one night and understood it up to expert level." Taylor frowned in thought. "I can build a wormhole at a way too expensive price tag." Two billion dollars? Sheesh.

"No wormholes until you are eighteen," Danny said in a firm tone. It only lasted a second and then he laughed. "So what is your next project going to be?"

"I've got three, actually. I want to patent the repulsor thruster for commercial rockets. A high density capacitor to run said thruster and lastly a couple of circuit optimization for processor units. Computers here are kind of on the wimpy side."

"I heard the rocket industry isn't doing well. I think they started just calling it the missile factory industry," Danny quipped. "I think the only one that builds rockets is Dragon and she uses Tinker rockets."

Taylor nodded as she stood back up. "Okay, I need to start packing up things so I can start working on the Mark 2."

"Aren't you going to upgrade your first one?" her father asked in confusion.

"Upgrading a high performance power armor isn't something you can just do on a whim, dad. I had to push my specifications to the limit to build the Mark 1 for so cheap." And do all the grunt work.

More robot arms to do all the work. And get Friday a 'home mainframe' to live in.

So much work.


	4. Maudling Madison

Dragon's servers hummed along as the A.I. split her attention between building her latest fast response unit, the many S-Class threats she followed, a few business functions and a bit of time playing mod with her PHO accounts for something light to do.

She switched her attention from banning a creepy person from Jersey to a rather large email. She read through the main body of the email as her own very advanced antivirus checked the document files. Mentally, she frowned as she read over the written up specifications for a thruster. It described using electrical power to create muons and then electromagnetically pulse them into a particle stream with intense kinetic power as a reaction.

The A.I. had seen something similar a time or two from Tinkers, but not as explicitly laid out. Two second later, her antivirus proclaimed the PDF as virus free and she opened up a series of very technical drawings that went on to explain exactly how to build a 20mm thruster.

She paused the construction of her new armor to start assembling a repulsor thruster per the diagram's instructions. As she worked, she checked her 'charges' and then checked to see if Armsmaster showed himself available.

"Hello, Dragon," Colin said as he looked up from his workshop. The bare beginnings of a project lay in front of him.

"Hello, Colin. It looks like you plan to adjust the joints on your knees and hips of your armor," she said as she studied the powered and pivoted joints.

"A little. I've been meaning to put in the work since I saw the joints on the new independent hero Iron Lass's armor. But trying to make a compact power source like she has-" He shook his head. "It distracted me, although I have tripled the power budget of my own armor."

"Tripled? So you solved it?" Dragon asked with interest.

"No, I didn't even come within shouting distance. Her armor had over a gigajoule of energy running through it at rest from the last time I met her. Literally just standing there and ready to power her thrusters. What I could do with that much energy. She can fly around faster than Hero ever could, even in that last suit of armor he had," Colin groused.

"I'd be interested in that myself. The anti-Endbringer weapons I could make… " Dragon said as she thought over it. "I wanted to show you a design that I've been contacted about to use for launching rockets into space, licensed to a local entrepreneur named T.R. Hebert of a brand new company called Stark Research and Development."

"Local?" he asked in a puzzled voice.

"As in local to Brockton Bay. In fact, SR&D is only about five blocks south of the local PRT HQ." Dragon continued to work on the device, noting that she did not see any missing or bridged parts of the design that failed to make sense.

"I think I heard something about that. Designed a medical battery with a great deal of capacity for one of the local medical companies. They required a certified inspection stating that the batteries were not Tinker tech and could be manufactured by anyone." Colin gave a small grin. "I applied for a license for the local Protectorate and Wards so that we can possibly use it for a small fee. It's actually how I tripled my armor's power."

"Hebert also included the design specifications for a very energy dense capacitor. Enough that I might be able to make a jet launched to orbit vehicle for a feasible cost." Dragon hummed for a second. "I've built a little mockup from the specifications and drawings. Do you want to see me fire it up?"

"Certainly," he replied as he turned to the bigger monitor.

On the screen, a round exhaust port appeared and started to emit energy.

"An electric muon thruster. I'm definitely interested in licensing this. I should be able to get to Endbringer fights 30 % faster," Dragon said. Maybe even improve it.

Colin frowned as he looked at the thruster. He must be tired and imagining things. The very definition of Deja Vu. "Interesting."

"You should get some sleep, Colin."

"Yes." He sighed as he stood up. "I have a patrol in eight hours and more reports. I'll drop a line to you later, okay?"

"Later, Colin."

* * *

Madison Clements looked away from the inside of her locker. The trio of girl's by the redhead's locker continued their talk about local heroes and villains. "I think Dauntless is pretty cool with his Roman theme," she interjected to them.

Taylor looked over and blinked.

"He's kind of lame. I mean, he only sort of figured out how to fly a few months ago," Sophia countered automatically. She turned her head to look at the shorter girl. "He doesn't look bad, at least."

"He's pretty dreamy," Emma agreed. "But looks aren't everything."

Taylor and Sophia both turned to look at her incredibly.

"Says the model," Taylor noted in humor.

"Hey! I'm more than a pretty face!" she countered.

"Do I need to mention your World Studies grade?" the taller girl said with a grin.

"Better than your Home Ec. class," she shot back, sticking out her tongue.

Madison giggled. "You guys are always talking about heroes and the villains."

"Better than gossiping if someone is pregnant or not," the prettiest girl said with a shrug.

A sharp elbow to Taylor right bicep struck home. "Race traitor," a white girl hissed as she walked by.

"What was that?" Sophia asked.

"Just some jerk," she replied as she rubbed her arm. "A racist jerk."

"So, um, have you guys finished your Christmas shopping?" Madison asked in a hopeful tone as she grabbed her biology book. "I'm hoping for a couple of nice, new outfits to show off!"

"I've got mine done, but I think Emma put hers off while she tried to figure out what her sister wanted. She's back for the Christmas break, right?" Taylor asked her long time friend.

"And Anne is being such a drama queen. I'm tempted to get her a gift card for the university's bookstore." Emma huffed and blew a tuft of her bangs out of her eyes. Time for another hair cut, it looked like.

"I got mine done months ago," Sophia said with a grin.

Taylor's cell phone buzzed and she pulled it out. "Nice! Good news from my job!"

"I'll see you guys later?" Madison asked.

"Maybe at lunch," Emma said with a smile. She waited for the other girl to leave. "Job, huh?"

"That big contract is panning out. So I should be able to order some more materials for the lab and shop," Taylor said with a huge grin on her face. She could finish the rest of the Mark 2 in days, not weeks.

"Geek!"

"Jock!"

"What are you? Two years old?" Emma asked them.

"She started it," Taylor noted as she picked up her math book. Next semester, she had a new schedule based on skipping a few grades for some classes.

"See you later! Only a week or so before the Christmas break, right? I want to check out that suspicious warehouse from last weekend." Without even a by your leave, Sophia took off at a fast walk to her class.

And by check out, she meant 'scan with your armor', Taylor noted. "Are you coming with me to SR&D? I can get you some hours so you can have some extra money filing paperwork."

"I've got my first model shoot since... then. So maybe tomorrow?" Emma asked.

"Tomorrow!"

* * *

Armsmaster looked across the group in front of him as he walked out the side entrance of the PRT HQ. Challenger and Miss Militia stood stoically near the helipad and ignored the wet snow falling from the sky. Assault and Battery stood ready, per the terms of his probation. A local, independent hero named Fem-Ra with a homemade costume that made him think of his lonely childhood and morning cartoons stood near them as she tapped her toes nervously.

And the Empire Eighty-Eight villain called 'Springteufel' and PR coded as Jackbox stood insolently in his red, black and white outfit jester's outfit with his hands on his hips. Likely sent to prove his worth to Kaiser and Hookwolf.

How many would be alive for Christmas Eve only three days away? Armsmaster could only hope for the best.

He expected that the timing came specifically to break that hope. Because it was what the Hopekiller did.

A loud crack sounded in the distance.

"Console to Armsmaster, this is Velocity. We just tagged something missile-sized leaving Brockton Bay at MACH 5. Direct line has it headed to Madison, Wisconsin. Confirm it is not something you made," the speedster asked.

"I confirm that I did not make or launch whatever that was, Console. ETA to a midrange jet transport or intercity teleporter?" Armsmaster replied over his helmet com.

"Jet transport is ETA one hour and fifteen minutes. Looks like it is a race to see if Strider can beat your transport arriving," Velocity said. "Console over."

"Over and out, Console."

"Any news about what the Simurgh is targetting?" Challenger asked as she cocked her head at an angle.

"Nothing, yet. It's only been twenty minutes," her leader replied.

She folded her green gloved arms over the white starburst over her chest. "And we'll probably only find out after the attack, when it is way too late."

Miss Militia patted her shoulder. "As always, we just do the best we can-"

"Wha-wha-wha," Jackbox said, his German accent leaking through as he had one hand act like it was talking. "What a bunch of defeatist shit. Crap."

"Jackbox, do not antagonize your allies," Armsmaster ordered.

* * *

She unlocked the back door to Stark Research and Development and then closed the outer door behind her. She opened the inner-firebreak door and then moved into the shop. The vault in front of her pulled open as she dropped her jacket on a workbench. She plugged the prototype ARC reactor into its chest.

It took ten minutes to carefully seal herself in the red and gold armor even with the help of Dumber, Idiot and Baka.

"That armor is no longer rated for heavy combat," Friday said as the OS finished its boot sequence.

"Just- I'm just keeping an eye in the docks. I don't plan on fighting Endbringers," she replied.

Friday thought and then finally asked, "Are you sure?"

"I have to do this." Emma looked up from the ground. "You know what it's like. To be broken and to pull yourself together. You know Taylor is not Tony Stark."

"She is the contingency to defeat Thanos. A desperate gamble." Friday paused. "The knowledge is not complete. And T. knows that my programming is fragile, so she does not ask that I refer her by her name. But suicide by cape is not the answer."

"I'm going during the afternoon for just a few hours, Friday. I doubt I'd run into anyone. Probably not even a mugging," she responded.

"Prepping stealth drones. The back alley is clear. I recommend using the parking garage path. I will put it up on your HUD, Miss Barnes."

The Mark 1 armor tromped forward on its rubberized cleats installed six weeks ago. It made the suit rather quieter on patrols, as some ABB and E88 thugs had discovered. Four strides took her into an old parking garage past spoofed cameras. Ten minutes later, she headed north towards the docks.

She boosted with the boot jets over the main roads as she kept to the alleys and back roads. Several times, the Mark 1 surprised groups of grubby looking kids and caused them to scatter. Hanger-ons from the ABB and smaller gangs like Rubble Roads and Cracked Skulls. All of them kids from Winslow.

"I'd probably do the whole city a favor by demolishing that place-" Emma muttered to herself.

BREEEEP! BREEEEP!

The bulky armor came to a stop as the girl fumbled in the chest cockpit for her cell phone.

"This is Emma! Oh, hey Sophia," she said in greeting.

"I thought our friend ditched the last class of the day to go to the Endbringer fight? And yet here I see Iron Lass patrolling like a newbie," Sophia complained.

"She did." Emma checked the time on her phone. "She's been there for over an hour and a half."

"-the fuck? Are you in that armor?" Shadow Stalker leaned over the side of the building to watch the Iron Lass Mark 1 armor.

"Yeah, figured I'd patrol the docks for a few hours to keep the gangs honest. Maybe arrest a mugger or drug dealer. You should come down so we aren't having this conversation over a phone line."

"Point." Shadow Stalker put away the cheap flip phone into her utility belt and then leaped over the edge and ghosting to the ground. In moments she glided across the ground as the Mark 1 twisted to watch her approach.

"Well- Red, I can't say it's a good look but it is badass," the vigilante said.

"It's armor, not a swimsuit. You patrolling, too?" 'Red' asked.

"Yeah. Found some ABB about a block that way," Shadow Stalker said, pointing towards the bay in the distance. "Six guys, meeting up behind a warehouse."

"And the big, bad Shadow Stalker couldn't take them?" She raised an eyebrow at that.

"Fuckers have a couple of assault rifles. Getting shot sucks and I'm really weak or knocked out afterwards."

"That's fair," Red admitted grudgingly.

* * *

The ABB gangsters huddled in the cold as snowflakes swirled down from the sky. The two women in the group stayed together around a corner to block most of the wind so they could complain quietly about the job. Both knew the complaints helped with nothing.

If they displeased Lung, they would end up in an insulated (but not airtight) 18' truck waiting for the driver to take their load out to the farm. Only the trusted lieutenant knew of the location.

Liu Chang Wo drove his Honda motorcycle up and under the eaves of the warehouse to park it. "They still alive?" he demanded after he took off his motorcycle helmet.

"Bitches are still sniveling," the girl known only as Yan said with a sneer.

The thwip-thump of a crossbow bolt hitting Liu Chang's leg electrified them with shot of adrenaline.

"Shadow! The Shadow!" Yan shouted as she looked at her heavies. "We kill the cunt today!"

The two bigger men in her group flicked the safeties and pulled the lever to load the first bullet.

And promptly got hit by two energy blasts that threw them against the side of the truck. The thudding steps of the Mark 1 Iron Lass armor came from nowhere.

"Surrender!" the armored figure demanded. "The police are on there way already!"

"You break the truce?" Liu Chang shouted from where he laid on the ground in pain. His hands gripped his leg to keep it from moving and hurting more.

"What truce?" Iron Lass 'Red' asked as she zapped one of the more brave ABB gangsters to send him flying into the trunk of a car.

"Endbringer truce! No parahuman fighting during Endbringer-"

"Bullshit," Shadow Stalker said as she materialized behind him and kicked him in the kidneys with the flat of her boot. "You do the crime, we stop it." She turned and pointed her hunter's crossbow at the other ABB members. "Down on your knees. Um, hands on your head."

"Do it," Iron Lass Red ordered and punctuated the order with a blast to the ground.

The sound of police sirens started up in the distance.

"Shadow Stalker and Iron Lass? What is going on?" a young man's voice behind them asked.

"Shit, the Protectorate," Shadow Stalker grumbled as she looked over her shoulder. Her dark eyes showed their fury through the eye-slits of her black hockey mask.

"Velocity," Iron Lass Red said in greeting. The bulky armor looked over towards the truck. "Looks like people in the back of that truck. So kidnapping victims?"

"We got a report about a parahuman fight." He looked around even as he shivered slightly. "No Lung or Oni Lee?"

"And we weren't fighting each other. Just these normal dirtbags," Shadow Stalker said in a smug tone.

Iron Lass Red knocked on the back door of the truck. "Please back away from the door." She then grabbed the too small hook-lever and broke the lock to open it. The roll-up door lifted up on its counter-weights.

"Oh, thank god," the first woman said. "Heroes! A couple of the girls are drugged and one of them isn't breathing too well."

"Don't worry, ma'am, help is on the way. Let me update the Protectorate."

The police showed up five minutes later to start arresting the gangsters. Four ambulances showed up to start helping the kidnaping victims.

Velocity waved the two other heroes over. "So, this is sort of a problem. Wait! You didn't really do anything wrong, but you could have caused the ABB to react and send their capes. And then we have a problem because here in Brocton Bay we follow, um, a 'soft' Endbringer truce. And you and the ABB would have broken it."

"So we're supposed to let the ABB crooks go?" Iron Lass Red demanded.

"No. No way in hell. But since there had no parahumans, you should have called the regular police," the older hero explained.

"Bullshit," Shadow Stalker spat out. "They had some assault weapons and everyone was armed. Someone could have got killed."

"And this time Lung didn't show up and try to kill everyone. Do you guys know what an Endbringer truce is?" he asked.

"It's where heroes and villains agree to only fight the Endbringers instead of each other," Iron Lass Red recited. "But it's not official."

"It isn't, but half of the Protectorate is out of town fighting The Simurgh. Which means we are in more danger if an actual parahuman fight breaks out. You could get me killed. See, this is why we have the Wards, so you know things like this and can keep safe."

"Fuck the Wards. I make a difference out here," the black garbed vigilante said.

Velocity flinched. "Well, you made a big difference today. And probably have Lung's notice. Just... If you get in over your head, call us. Or the PRT or even the Ward's line." He pulled out a thin business card with multiple phone numbers on it.

"Got it on speed dial," Iron Lass Red said. "Come on, Shadow Stalker. It's not going to be the end of the world if you need to call on them to help." She gave a shoo gesture with her too big right hand.

"Fine. Whatever," she snapped as she took the super thin sheet and put it in a pouch on her belt.

"What?" Velocity asked in a distracted tone. "Oh, Console wanted me to ask if you know about that Mach 5 missile that left towards Wisconsin?"

"Oh. Um. That's Iron Lass in her just finished Mark 2," the bulky figure stated in its distorted yet still female voice. "Just call me Iron Lass Red? I'm just doing a patrol to show the flag. Or something like that."

Velocity stared at her and groaned. "Velocity to Console, verified that the UFO is independent hero Iron Lass in a new armor."

"How badass is the new armor?" Shadow Stalker asked with a gleam in her dark eyes.

"It's like at least twice as powerful as the Mark 1. At least," Iron Lass Red said in excitement.

Kids, Velocity thought to himself.

* * *

Two hours ago on the roof of Winslow High School:

"Remember to tell the teacher I went home not feeling well," Taylor said as she walked out the roof door as she pocketed her shape-shifting multi-key.

"What about your dad?" Emma asked as she frowned.

"I'll call him on the way," her best friend promised.

Her new Mark 2 armor shot down on baffled repulsor thrusters. The six foot six armor opened up so she could enter into the armor with its triangular ARC reactor in its chest. Arms into the sleeves and feet into the lower legs to show that instead of mostly sitting in a cockpit, she wore this armor like armor.

"Stay safe," Emma said even as she planned to cut classes herself.

"I plan on it," Iron Lass promised as her armor finished folding around her. Little drones dampened the sound of her taking off as she shot into the sky. They slapped back into place into her armor as she blasted past the speed of sound in an arcing curve towards the west.

The phone started ringing and caused Taylor to raise her eyebrow in consternation. Friday decided to call her dad preemptively?

The line clicked open. "Taylor?" Danny asked in a very tense voice. A door closed in the background. "Please tell me you are not heading to the Endbringer fight."

"I would be lying if I said that," she replied a bit flippantly. "Damn, sorry Dad. That- That was a Tony response. But yes, I'm headed to Wisconsin. ETA is thirteen minutes."

"You aren't ready," he protested.

"The Mark 2 is fully functional. I can make a difference-"

"Then use your head, your smarts! You don't have to throw yourself into a fight that kills seasoned heroes, Taylor," he near shouted into cell phone.

"I can do that even in a fight. I'm getting pretty good at this, dad. Even Armsmaster said that a couple of weeks ago. And I was still in the Mark 1. This new suit is much better. Faster, stronger and far more powerful. Still not good enough to match a quarter of Tony's Mark LI. But I'm almost my own super team these days."

"Promise me you won't die," Danny choked out through his tears. "Promise me!"

"I- I can't promise that. I'd be lying. But I promise to try my damndest to come home in one piece," she responded in a soft, almost dead sounding tone.

"Do not worry, Mr. Hebert. My full facilities are behind your daughter's safety," Friday promised. "Her odds of surviving the fight are far better than compared to the average hero or villain."

"Come home," Danny entreated.

"We will. You heard Friday. And I promise to fight with my head and not just with my, er, fists," Taylor replied with a stronger sense of purpose. "I love you."

"I love you, honey."

The click of the dropped line almost disappeared in the thundering sound of her flight.

Taylor looked forward and down at the clouds below her. "Alright, Friday. You heard Dad. I want you to contact the PRT as Thinker and computer support for the fight. Let's try to help everyone alive and not a time bomb, okay?"

"Understood, T."

Minutes later, her HUD started to assemble the picture of floating buildings (in the tens of thousands of tons range) along with a strange device being built above the center of the swirling storm of buildings.

"Friday, get me a scan on that and see if we can figure out what it does," Taylor ordered as the suit loosened up for rapid maneuverability flight.

"Understood, T. Passing on the scans to the PRT and Thinker support," the A.I. responded. "Countdown timer started."

The buildings skipped and tumbled abruptly, as if The Simurgh nearly dropped them. In moment, an entire house shot out at Iron Lass. She juked and blasted through a spinning corner as she slowed down to Mach 1.5.

"Friday, aimbot assist with the primary emitter!" Taylor ordered as she started her attack run.

The unibeam fired a long pulse as the Iron Lass armor shot right over and the the front of the Simurgh and exploded two pieces of the floating ring.

"We have a hit. The eight power nodes on the inside ring match Dr. Haywire's dimensional shear focusing lenses," Friday replied as another stutter in the swirling debris happened.

"So no going through the portal if at all possible or we might be lost on another Earth-"

"Evading!" Friday shouted as a tanker truck of fuel swung towards the Iron Lass armor in a sharp angle.

Repulsors fired just before it could slam home and a massive fireball exploded in the air.


	5. The Hopekiller

"T., wake up!" Friday yelled.

Iron Lass shook her head in darkness. Nothing rattled. "How long?"

"Only two minutes. A spatial event is underway," the A.I. said. "Holistic systems are attempting repairs."

The armor pushed itself to its feet and shoved a hefty chunk of concrete off of itself. An exploded classroom met her gaze.

"Right. University of Wisconsin here." Iron Lass pointed her hands towards the ground and activated all four primary thrusters to shoot into air.

The Simurgh floated in the middle of her debris and buildings shield, blocking blasts of energy. The device floating above her controlled three openings in space to other places.

Instantly a five story building of stone and brick shot at her. Iron Lass raised her hands as her palm repulsors switched from flight to weapon blast mode. The repulsors blasted holes as she shot _through_ the building and out the other side.

"Six minute counter, mark start now," Taylor ordered. The Iron Lass armor zigged and zagged around flying cars and campus buildings.

"Pull back!" the hero Legend called out as he followed Iron Lass through the air. "You have to check in! When did you get here?"

"Five minutes?" Iron Lass replied. "I was that big sonic boom when I arrived and then got swatted."

"That's been eight minutes! Get out of the range of her cry now! Look for the green and white flares to the south of here!" he ordered.

"Friday? Figure out how she did it!" Iron Lass ordered the A.I. as she zoomed out of the combat area at high speeds. Twenty seconds later, Iron Lass landed with a clunk in the middle of a group of heroes and villains.

"Who are you?" the man in rough sack-cloth asked as he waved his staff at her.

"Iron Lass. Myrddin, right? From Chicago?" she replied as she scanned around the organized chaos of heroes moving to follow people to get into groups.

"That is correct," he replied. "Some sort of Tinker, I'd assume."

"Something like that," she replied evasively. "So how does this work?"

"We fight in shifts. Ten minutes inside the radius of her song and then twenty minutes out. This is the current rally point. You'll be in my group as you showed a decent amount of power, speed and enough smarts to get out before she made you into a time bomb. Bastion, take over the introduction," Myrddin ordered even as he turned away and trotted over to a tent filled with PRT troops and people in suits.

"God dammit, Myrddin. I'm not your gopher anymore," the leader of the Boston Protectorate called out as he walked over with a high tech armband held out. "Take this. If its counter reaches zero while in the song, you've been Simurghed. Depending on how bad, you might get to live here permanently. Dragon says she's working on better versions, but I'm not sure," the older hero said as the silver shield emblem on his chest gleamed under the winter bright sunlight.

"Rule #1. Don't get Simurghed," Iron Lass replied sagely. She managed to get it around her wrist.

"Right. Stay right here. I'm going to gather the rest of our group."

"Please state your name," the armband called out.

"Iron Lass."

Friday spoke up once Bastion left. "I have figured out how The Simurgh caused the glitch by forcing a timing request from the Greenwich time servers on another Earth that is not quite in synch here. I have patched the flaw and made sure that the clock will only change to match a hardware timer in the Mark 2."

"Good." Taylor narrowed her eyes. "Those portals are getting bigger and starting to oscillate. Any idea where they go?"

The A.I. highlighted one of them. "This one has a broadcast signal with scattered internet traffic from Earth Aleph. The next one has some sort of signal, but it is encrypted in an unusual way."

"Bastion!" Iron Lass called out.

"What?" he snapped back. Little punk assed kid-

"One of those portals leads to Earth Aleph. They need to be warned about the Endbringer threat," she called out in a louder voice.

"Ah, shit," Bastion said as he took off to the logistics tent.

For Taylor's ears only, Friday spoke up. "I could probably trigger the air raid warning sirens through the Earth Aleph portal."

"Do it," she ordered. "And see if you can help here. Use the pseudonym Team Friday, okay?"

The minutes crept by as Taylor occupied her mind by 'using her brain', like she promised her father. Plans, technical improvements and looking for weak points in the organization that she relayed through Friday.

Eidolon got his group of fifteen heroes moving, flying out into the cold, blue sky under the harsh sunlight. They soon disappeared towards the fight in the distance. He led off with a massive beam of purple light that blew up a small office building.

Dragon arrived on rocket thrusters in the meantime. Her massive armor settled into a four legged crouch near them. Eight drones floated out of small slots and shot off into the cold, windy air. Her long, serpentine neck angled her head over to the red and gold figure.

"Iron Lass, right? I'm Dragon and it is nice to meet another Tinker!" the huge Tinker said.

"Nice to meet you, Dragon. You're kind of an inspiration for female Tinkers, you know," Iron Lass replied.

"Thank you, that was nice of you to say so. I think you are annoying Armsmaster a little bit," she replied with amusement evident in her voice. "He's still trying to figure how you can generate so much power."

"Oh, um. I built a radio-isotopic decay cell to produce direct electron flow in a torus ring with variable electromagnetic frequency pulses. The original model used Palladium 106 and 108," Iron Lass explained as if it were just basic science.[1]

"I've seen a couple of Tinker do something like that, but never as efficiently as you seem to do. I'll have to tinker a bit with the idea. I could use a couple of gigajoules of power in my armors," she replied with a huff of laughter.

Bastion walked out of the tent and over to us. "Okay, here comes Legend and his group. Watch out for the lakes. While the ice is thick enough for light vehicles, there is freezing water under about eighteen inches there. We've already lost a couple of people that way."

A burst of lightning and a group of eight people appeared.

"Stay frosty!" Strider said to his passengers. "Next?"

A local PRT trooper held up a data pad to Strider for his next location. "Miami PRT, group of six."

His partner looked over at the group as he started to hand out armbands. "Armsmaster! Search and Rescue is on the other side of the tent, along with triage." When no one moved away, he nodded. "I'm going to split you up. You are either going to join Legend's or Bastion's team."

"Put me on Bastion's team. We've worked together in the past," Armsmaster said as he looked around to spot the shield maker.

"I'll go join Legend," Challenger said as she lifted off the ground to hop the short distance to the blue and white member of the Triumvirate.

Jackbox followed her, while Fem-Ra followed Armsmaster. Miss Militia nodded as she counted heads in both groups quickly. She gestured with her head to her two teammates to follow her over to Bastion's smaller team.

"Dragon. Good to see you again. Bastion? Any updates that we need to be aware of?" Armsmaster said as he came over to shake hands.

"The Simurgh got ahold of a cache of Haywire's technology and is working on making some sort of device," Bastion explained. "Iron Lass here broke it a little bit, but that only delayed things for a few minutes."

Myrddin came out of the tent at a trot and took over from Bastion even as he nodded to Armsmaster. "Five minute countdown until we leave. Dragon, are you with us?"

"I am," she replied as her long neck craned around. "I can carry three people easily enough."

"Thanks. Anyone else?" Myrddin called out.

"I can carry one or two people if they are strong enough," Iron Lass said as she raised her hand.

"Hit me with your best shot," Assault called out to Battery.

She nodded then stood still to charge up her power as lines lit up on her black outfit.

Miss Militia moved over with Fem-Ra. "How did you want to do this?"

"I'll hold out my arms and you can just wrap your own arms around them. I'll take it slow until we can get closer," Iron Lass said.

They sorted things out in the few minutes and then took off towards the distant Endbringer. As they approached, some sort of futuristic jet thundered out of one of the portals. Iron Lass slowed to drop the two heroes as the scream sounded in their heads. Taylor tried to pop her ears, to no effect.

"Can you pick up anything?" she asked Friday privately.

"High range energy band, similar to the Mind Infinity Stone-" she replied as the jet curved around.

The pilot tried to avoid a flying convenience store and mostly succeeded. The semi truck behind that snapped the left wing off at the midway point.

"Brace for a crash!" the pilot shouted. "She-Devil! Marshall!"

Iron Lass shot up and grabbed onto the stub of the wing and increased her thrusters to give lift and forward thrust. "Friday, new counter for these guys."

"Roger, T."

The doorway on the side of the plane right behind the cockpit opens up to allow a man and a woman to fly out of the plane. They both in turn grabbed onto the plane.

"Thank you, armored warrior," the obsidian skinned man said. "We are the Global Guardians of Earth Aleph. Thanks to the timely warning your government sent ours, we are able to be here to help. I am the Marshall."

"Less talking, more lifting," his female teammate said.

"Of course, She-Devil," he replied in a calm tone of voice.

"Iron Lass. I didn't think your Earth had a big super team," Taylor admitted. Her crash alert sounded as another building flew at them. "Shit!"

"Drop the plane!" came an order from inside as a female in a mostly red bodysuit stepped to the doorway. "I've got Wrath and Blurrest." And indeed she had two men under her arms as she leaped out and away from the plane.

"T! The device is powering up to a new level!" Friday warned.

"Watch out for the portals!" Iron Lass shouted.

"Priority alert," the armbands all said in Dragon's voice. "The device is powering up to a critical level."

Dragon's armor belched plasma and lasers at The Simurgh even as it banked hard.

The spinning ring of technology above The Simurgh roared with electricity across its surface even as debris blocked blasts and attacks from Myrddin, Bastion and Miss Militia. The roar crested into a thunder that could be felt in your bones.

The four portals expanded and rotated almost faster than you could blink. Armsmaster and Battery both had to move fast to not get swept up. And after the portal swept through, new buildings appeared. Or to be more accurate, the top parts of new buildings from other Earths.

A fairly large apartment building balanced on the edge of its angled bottom and started to tip.

"T., Fem-Ra is now on the other side of Portal B," Friday said.

"Busy!" Iron Lass responded as she set her palm repulsors to full strength and started to shoot the pivot point so that the building collapsed downward instead of tipping over on its side at an angle.

"Exceed! Blurrest! I've got heat sources in the building," the dark cloaked member of the Guardian Alliance called out as his red-lens covered eyes scanned the building. He ran along a broken sidewalk, a stark shadow among the harsh light of the sun reflected off the the snow.

"On it!" the female said who wore an outfit that looked reminiscent of Legend. She shot off in a, well, blur and into the collapsing building.

The scarlet garbed Exceed leaped forward and towards the side where the building still fell slowly. She landed with a skid and then leaped into the sky and slammed into the upper edge of the building and sent it back in a wobbly, unsteady way.

"Five minutes," Friday called out.

Taylor double-checked her armband. "Right. Going after She-Ra wannabe." She angled her hands behind her and then kicked them all off to full power to shoot through the swirling debris around the Simurgh.

The debris that _stuttered_ again for some reason and gave her just enough room to shoot through the portal.

Fem-Ra slammed her blunted sword against horribly mutated monsters that tried to kill her with a variety of powers. The electricity on the sword started growing and forced back two brutish looking monsters. "Oh, thank god!"

Iron Lass slammed to the ground next to her and fired off six quick repulsor blasts. "Grab me around my neck on the front and we'll take off!"

"Um, sure? Why the front?" Fem-Ra asked.

"Flaps with thrusters on my back." Iron Lass launched into the air at full speed and towards the erratically moving portal. "Friday!"

"Assisting," the A.I. said in a crackling voice.

The Iron Lass armor juked and passed through the portal and then rocketed to the ground. Another sharp turn as Fem-Ra screamed in her ear got them shooting out of the ring.

"Eight minutes," Friday murmured.

Iron Lass zoomed over to where the Guardian Alliance gathered. "Okay! No time! Everyone has to leave the scream area in less than two minutes!" she called out.

Armsmaster ran over. "She's right! We are closing in on the cut off point where we will be turned into a danger to everyone else."

"Damn," Exceed shouted. "We haven't even done anything yet."

"You survived and helped peopled," Armsmaster said. "Rally point is due south."

"We'll grab a couple of the civilians and leave," Exceed promised.

"Only those ten from that building," Wrath said. "Any of you that can run or jog, with me!"

The teens looked over in surprise. "We've got a couple of people that need to be carried."

"You can call me crippled in an emergency, jackass," a girl with stick thin legs said where she sat on the icy ground.

A blue and white blur shot by and picked up the two girls even as the scarlet Exceed picked up an elderly couple. "Start running! Your life and your sanity depend on it!"

"I can run," Fem-Ra said to Iron Lass. "Armsmaster could probably use a lift."

"Right. Armsmaster?" Iron Lass asked.

"Grab Miss Militia and Battery. I'll grapple you with my halberd," he replied and nodded at her.

In minutes, their entire team followed Myrddin and Bastion back to the rally point.

They would rinse and repeat another three times.

* * *

The fifteen foot truck stopped and then backed up into an alleyway. The back opened up and a heavy waldo grabbed the back of the Iron Lass Mark 1 and gently pulled it inside to lay on its back. The weight caused the truck to sink just a bit on its shocks. The door closed behind her.

"Are you ready to leave?" Danny asked in a tense voice.

"Ready," Emma said.

"Your father will be waiting for us at the shop," he replied.

The girl winced, but just took a deep breath. She knew that she would have to pay the piper for this. "Sure, Mr. Hebert."

"Just Danny. And it sounds like you did good, but I think Alan is going to ground you for forever. Even if you saved six girls from the ABB's slave trade." Danny started the long, cautious drive back to the Stark Research & Development past the several turn offs and changed the license plates twice.

A sedan seemed to follow them, so Danny signaled to turn right and slowed for an overly long time to go down an alley only two blocks from the PRT Headquarters. He waited for the sedan to turn right at the light down the block, then quickly turned to cross to the left turn lane and through the yellow light.

The truck bounced along at slightly unsafe speeds and he took a sharp right down the alley between the parking garage and the shop. Another sharp turn put him into the back entrance of Stark Research and Development. The heavy doors rolled down. He killed the engine and went to the security panel next to the back door.

Two minutes later, a dark sedan turned the corner and passed the back door. The two men inside gave off the air of military.

After they left, he helped get the armor and the waldo out of the back of the truck as the digital paint activated and put their logo back on the sides.

Emma crawled out of the Iron Lass armor and looked quite the fright. Her father grabbed her into a hug.

"What were you thinking?" he demanded. "You could have been hurt."

"I'm fine and I proved I can fight back. T-That I'm not just a victim. I had to do it, you see. I hate feeling so helpless. I don't want to be scared anymore," she let out in a rush.

"Oh, Emma. _I_ was scared. We'll just have to be careful and not let it happen again," Alan told her. "You are still grounded for a week."

She nodded. "Yeah, okay."

"Is the holdout bracelet not enough?" Friday spoke to them.

Emma shook her hand with its gold-looking bracelet. She tapped the button on the underside with her ring finger. It quickly unfolded and wrapped around her hand to put a repulsor into the palm. "I guess, but I forget it's there sometimes."

Danny chuckled. "No kidding. I can't believe my watch does the same thing. Alan?"

"Danny, I don't know," his old friend said.

"She needs help. Professional help," Danny said in a serious tone of voice.

"I'm not crazy!" Emma shouted. "Don't talk to me like I'm not here!" She tensed her hands and the repulsor went off and gouged a small crater in the concrete. "Shit!"

"Emma, don't worry about that. I'll have the robot arms fix that later." Danny ran his hands through his thinning hair. "Seeing someone after a traumatic attack is not saying you are crazy."

"It means you are hurt and need help healing," Alan said as he carefully hugged his youngest daughter.

The redhead nodded as she deactivated the defense bracelet. "I guess."

The skylight opened and the Mark 2 armor came through at fairly high speed and clunked to the ground. The blank faceplate looked around. It unfolded from around Taylor and she stumbled out of it a few steps.

"What is going on?" she asked. She frowned as she looked over to the Mark 1 being dragged back to its vault.

"Emma took your old suit for a spin," Danny explained.

"Emma?" Taylor asked in a hurt voice.

"I just wanted to patrol and stuff. And then Shadow Stalker told me about some ABB. So we took them down and rescued some sex slaves-"

"Emma! You aren't supposed to know about that sort of thing!" Alan protested.

"Dad, everyone at Winslow knows about it. Even Taylor!" his daughter shot back in a snarky tone of voice.

"Yeah, it's pretty horrible." Taylor looked away with a grimace. "Well, I had to pass through some Master/Stranger protocols before I could come home. Other than saving some people, I didn't really accomplish much. None of us did, as it took Scion showing up to drive her away." An idea flickered in her mind for a second. A half-remembered formula that _**he**_ found in a hidden journal from Tony's father. "I need better weapons. Something that can bypass its armor."

"You need to get to bed. Tomorrow is still a school day."

"Can we get some tacos on the way home?" Taylor asked with hope.

"Sure," Danny said with a smile as he hugged her tight.

"Friday, start on the repairs on the Mark 2. And don't forget to let me know if Boeing or Lockheed-Martin decide to license the thrusters," Taylor called out as they left.

* * *

[1] Thanks to Mgunh1 for the interesting link about how the ARC reactor probably works.


	6. Interlude 1 - The Triggers

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Topic: Guardians Alliance stranded on Earth Bet!

In: **Boards ► USA ► New York City**

Bagrat (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

Posted On Jan 5th 2010:

Guardians Alliance stranded on Earth Bet! Due to the Aleph-Bet Treaty between the USA of Earth Aleph and Earth Bet, there is no way to return the heroes to their own world.

(Update: Earth Aleph opens negotiations for limited transportation between worlds.)

(Update 2: CUI threatens actions if the USA re-opens any Haywire portals)

(Update 3: Guardians Alliance offers to assist Protectorate hotspots.)

(Showing page 15 of 18)

►AverageAlexandros (Cape Husband)

Replied On Jan 5th 2010:

Still hoping that something can be done for the Guardians. This must be a terrible blow to their friends and families.

►Char

Replied On Jan 5th 2010:

I'm just saying, Bagrat, that at least the GA are going to be willing to help out. I mean each of them except Wrath seem to be pretty powerful. Much more powerful than I thought capes on Earth Aleph got.

And I still think Beetlbrot's idea to exile Simurgh victims to Earth Aleph is stupid. They would still be a danger to people.

►White Fairy (Veteran Member)

Replied On Jan 5th 2010:

It makes perfect sense. Their Earth is much more stable and has a lot more resources they could throw at Simurgh victims. It would be far more humane than keeping them behind a wall of a Simurgh Containment zone.

We're going to run out of cities at some point!

►Answer Key

Replied On Jan 5th 2010:

Those people still have _some_ rights, you know. Exile without due process would be a massive human rights violation.

►Poit

Replied On Jan 5th 2010:

It's all moot anyways. The current treaty bans even research into portals to Earth Aleph. So they are basically screwed. They should just join the Protectorate and man up to be heroes.

►Tumbles

Replied On Jan 5th 2010:

You're all heart, Poit. There's getting to be a little traction to allowing very limited passage to and from Earth Aleph.

►Feychick

Replied On Jan 5th 2010:

Yeah, all we have to worry about is the fascist chinks starting a parahuman war! No problem whatsoever! The current administration lacks the guts to confront the CUI, so don't expect any update to the treaty.

Their emperor is probably terrified that Aleph China will declare war and nuke them.

►Deadman

Replied On Jan 5th 2010:

Yeah, that's not going to happen even if Aleph China gets portal tech. Scion stopped our Cold War flat out. He can do it to their China if he wants to. He might be a space cadet, but he will step in if it looks like we are about to exterminate ourselves.

►Robby

Replied On Jan 5th 2010:

I heard they are going to drop by to help out Pittsburg and then maybe go to Brockton Bay or Laredo. Here's hoping they can help squash some Panthers, Nazis and Paracartels!

►Bagrat (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

Replied On Jan 5th 2010:

Just got some news that the United States Navy is deploying a carrier group to Japan again. A little birdie let slip that the 1st Marine Paracorp is going with them for added muscle.

Things are getting tense.

End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18

 **Topic: New Wave welcomes Fulcrum to the team**

In: **Boards ► USA ► Brockton Bay**

Valkyr (Original Poster) (Wiki Warrior)

Posted On Nov 26th 2009:

Fulcrum, the daughter of Mark and Carol Dallon, recently gained her powers and joined the team as a full member.

(Update: Power noted as shaker or healer power).

(Update 2: Fulcrum announces that she will offer healing by visiting several hospitals)

(Showing page 5 of 11)

►Bagrat (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

Replied On Dec 29th 2009:

Her healing isn't very strong, but there are minor boosts that have been noted when she showed up to help New Wave fight during a riot at Rodan's Bar.

She hasn't gone to the PRT for power testing, but besides a minor regeneration, people she's fighting with appear to be stronger and faster and tire less often.

The kicker I just learned is that _enemies_ that got near her complained of weakness or nausea.

►Vista (Wards ENE) (Verified Cape)

Replied On Dec 29th 2009:

Yeah, Amy is pretty cool. She dropped by to visit the Wards after we had that scuffle with Torrent and Spiker when they had that gang fight on the edge of the ABB's territory.

Her dad can't say enough good about her. Flashbang wants her to do some joint patrols.

►Kriketz

Replied On Jan 5th 2010:

Hey guys! I just heard that the last kid of New Wave triggered or whatever it is Parahumans do. Rumors at Arcadia are saying she got in a cat fight with the head of the cheerleaders in the girl's locker room and all of a sudden got this blue forcefield thing going on and put the cheerleader into the hospital.

►Bagrat (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

Replied On Jan 5th 2010:

PRT dispatch did send a team to Arcadia earlier today. I thought maybe one of the Wards got attacked.

►Reave (Verified PRT Agent)

Replied On Jan 5th 2010:

PRT ENE did dispatch a team to Arcadia along with an ambulance. Injuries were minor and no Wards were hurt. Victoria Dallon is cooperating with PRT and Protectorate authorities.

As always, we want to stress that trigger events are not something we treat lightly and we try to give new parahumans the benefit of the doubt. Miss Dallon appeared to be quite contrite and worried about Miss Pullock.

►Lady Photon (Verified Cape) (New Wave)

Replied On Jan 5th 2010:

Miss Pullock is being a good sport about the incident and we were able to get the matter resolved. Everyone should be back to school in the morning. And yes, Vicky is grounded for a week.

►Dawgsmiles (Veteran Member)

Replied On Jan 6th 2010:

Anyone have any idea on her power?

►Vita Girl (New Wave) (Verified Cape)

Replied On Jan 6th 2010:

Right now it looks like an Alexandria set of powers based on force fields. No real surprise with Mom, my cousins and Uncle Ned.

I've got explosion punches from Dad though!

I'm grounded for another week because of the hole in the fence. :(

►Deimos

Replied On Jan 6th 2010:

The hairs on the nape of my neck are trying to stand up. Explosion punches? Why didn't you call yourself Explosion Girl?

►Feychick

Replied On Jan 6th 2010:

Well, I expect some very blown up villains in the future.

End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ... 9, 10, 11

(Showing page 6 of 11)

►Vita Girl (New Wave) (Verified Cape)

Replied On Jan 6th 2010:

I don't have to explode things when I punch. It just means when I really need to punch hard I can. Well, once I can leave the house. Uncle Ned and Dad are going to take me to someplace to practice with my powers soon.

(You guys are being mean! :P )

End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11


	7. Tinker, Traps and Twists

Taylor nodded her head to the blaring heavy metal band three weeks later that filled the air as she worked on a side project. Project Force Beam aimed to hit as hard as possible with a repulsor weapon.

"I'm not sure why you are calibrating the repulsors. You won't be able to use it as a thruster, Miss. T.," Friday said to her as she muted the music for a moment.

"While the adjustable aperture repulsor is good enough for most fights, it was rather useless against-"

Bang! KWUMP!

Taylor set down her micro-soldering iron and turned to the reinforced corner. "Dumber?" she called out.

The poor damaged robotic arm rolled out of the small reinforced room in the corner. Its manipulator claw that it waved around looked crushed.

"Well well," Taylor said as narrowed her eyes. "Batch 3, test 5?"

"Test 4," Friday corrected.

"Hmm. Baka, get Dumber a new hand and help clean up. Friday, document the workplace accident form and that no human was injured and only minor costs in materials and tools," she ordered her minions. "I said humans, not people!"

Baka and Dumber seemed to perk up at that.

A loud buzzer sounded from the front officer. Taylor blinked and then headed through the empty offices.

"There is the Protectorate hero Armsmaster at the front door," Friday said.

"Lock down and hide the armor vaults, please." Taylor pushed her glasses up her nose. "And let Dad know that the Protectorate showed up. Then listen in and record, but don't reveal yourself."

She continued on to the heavy door and tapped in a four and then eight digit code, then held down a hidden button on the side. The door buzzed and the heavy electric solenoids clanked opened the door. Taylor then blinked at the sight of two heroes in armor.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

Armsmaster nodded. "I was wanting to see if I could talk to a T.R. Hebert?" he asked.

"Um, I'm Taylor Hebert."

The teen boy in the blue and silver armor next to him blinked in surprise. "You're T.R. Hebert?" he blurted out.

Taylor looked between them.

"I'm Armsmaster and this is the new Ward, Kid Win. Did I hear an explosion?" he asked.

"Stark Research and Development has a small chemistry lab. There was a small, contained and evacuated explosion caused by some automation. Some of the chemicals used in our batteries can be a little dangerous," she explained as casually as possible. "Would you like to come in?"

"If you don't mind," Armsmaster said.

After the door closed behind the two heroes, the adult looked around. "Not much office space."

"My dad's office and a receptionist. We're all part time right now. I still have to go to school." Taylor pointed to Danny's slightly cluttered office. "We've got a small computer system, too. Only a rack of blade servers right now."

"You do some computer modeling?" he asked.

"CAD and design, mostly." She opened the secure door to the back shop that took up eighty percent of the building's space. "So, how can I help you, Armsmaster?" Taylor asked.

"The Protectorate and PRT drop in to inspect locations of suspected Tinkers. And to try to warn them if the gang's look to be attempting to recruit. There has been some rumors that the gangs _are_ investigating any possible links. Are you the Tinker, Iron Lass?" he asked.

"No," Taylor said in a heated tone. "I am an engineer and looking to graduate from Winslow High so I can get into college. My designs can be made by anyone with enough skill in construction of electronic devices."

"The repulsor thruster seems to be Tinker derived-" he tried to bullrush over her rebuttal.

"Boeing-Lockheed's engineering division seems to think otherwise, as they are building a fighter jet rated thruster following my designs," Taylor said with a scowl on her face.

"It is possible that you do not realize you are a Tinker," Armsmaster said in a conciliatory tone of voice. "I would like you to come in to the PRT building and do a Tinker test to have you build a device."

"You are not going to leave me alone until I fail your Tinker test, are you?"

Kid Win frowned at that. "Why don't you just come out if you are a Tinker?"

"I am not a Tinker. Full stop." Which is not to say she did not have super powers, even if she didn't have their brain thingie.

* * *

Lonnie Echs nodded as he listened on his cell phone. "Carlos Fuentes? I didn't know he was connected to the Cracked Skulls. Time and place?"

He continued to listen and had to take out a small notepad and write some names down.

"Yeah, that's really useful and allows me to blood those kids. They'll owe me big for this tip, boss. You'll wire the payment?" Lonnie asked as he put away his notes. "Nice, boss! Always good doing business." He jabbed the off button and pocketed his phone.

Those Winslow kids like to hang out at the mall after school. This shouldn't take long.

* * *

Danny pulled into a free parking stop and quickly exited the truck to run to the workshop building. The door popped up to show a pale Taylor.

"You aren't hurt?" he demanded as he followed her in to the office area.

"Just really upset. Armsmaster is trying to prove I'm a parahuman, which I'm not, and then he's going to try and strong arm me into the Wards. Which will cripple my ability to make armors to fight things like the Endbringers and other S-Class threats," Taylor said in a tightly controlled voice.

Danny reached out and hugged her tightly. "You'll just have to keep being smart and not leaving them an opening."

"I've got some ideas on how to trip them up while I'm taking their Tinker test. Give me about three hours and then we'll start testing it out," Taylor explained as she headed back into her shop.

Four hours later, Iron Lass deployed and cautiously started flying around town. After about two hours on patrol, Iron Lass spotted the old Mark 1 armor tromping along an alley down by the bad part of the docks. The armor clanked to a halt with only a half-step of a stumble in its landing.

"Iron Lass Red."

Said armored figure turned to look at the Mark 2. "Hello. Just keeping the ganger's heads down, Iron Lass."

"And did you let your dad know this time?"

Iron Lass Red nodded her upper body (as her head did not have a neck really). "I did and I'm not supposed to fight any supervillains or people with military weapons."

'To all cars north of Franklin Avenue, be aware that an armed robbery is in progress at the Captain's Bay Cash Loans. At least three men with shotguns," Friday helpfully piped over their radios.

"I know right where that is, so I'm headed out," Iron Lass called out and then shot into the air in a roar of thrusters.

"I'm right behind you, Iron Lass!" the blocky armored figure called out as she rose into the air much more slowly.

At the cash loan, the muscular and blocky thug waved a gun at the young man behind the security glass door to behind the registers. "That really isn't bulletproof, ya know." With that, he blew the lock right off the door. "See? I toldja. Moe! Curly! Get your asses over here and grab two tills of money. We gotta vamoose here in a minute or two!'

His two masked buddies pushed in and clubbed the teller to the ground with the stock of their shotguns.

Almost two minutes to the dot, they hit the emergency fire exit door and turned down the alley at a quick run.

With a woosh of jets, the Iron Lass armor landed in front of them.

"That's far enough. Oh, and just so you know, this armor is totally impervious to your shotguns. You are more likely to hurt yourself than me." The Iron Lass armor clomped towards them slowly.

"She can't catch us all! Run for it and split up!" the chief robber shouted and he ran back down the alley towards the man street the cash loan occupied.

A _louder_ woosh and Iron Lass Red landed at the entrance. "Just give it up, sleeze balls. I don't want to accidentally break something unimportant. Like _you_." Inside her armor, Emma grinned. This was always so badass.

"God damn skanks! Why are you picking on us normals?" the leader shouted as he dropped his gun and raised his hands above his heads.

"Don't do the crime if you don't want to do the time," Iron Lass Red said in a very snarky tone.

A very boring twenty minutes later, the PRT and the new hero Dauntless finally showed up. While the PRT handcuffed the crooks to hand over to the police, Dauntless walked over.

"Iron Lass and Iron Lass Red. Color me surprised," he said in a slightly confused tone. "I could have sworn that Armsmaster said that one of you two was undergoing Tinker testing at the PRT HQ."

Iron Lass tilted her faceless helmet a little to the side. "I think you have me confused with someone else. Maybe you should Trump up a power to help with that?"

"Oh well, that's above my pay grade. So you two happened to be out and patrolling?" Trump up a power to help?

"And heard the police alert about the armed robbery and knew we could get here before they could escape. So here we are and there they go."

"Well, could you hang around for a Wards patrol? Vista and Gallant would like to meet some other teen heroes," Dauntless said as he gestured down the road to a rapidly approaching pair of figures.

Iron Lass shook her head. "Sorry, but I have to take off. More designs to finalize." With that, the armored figure shot into the air. It would not be right to intrude.

"Um, I guess I can hang out." Iron Lass Red sounded a little hurt and confused.

Dauntless frowned at the abruptness of the other girl's departure.

In just a half minute more of eye-twisting wrongness, the green-clad Vista and chrome armored Gallant arrived.

"Hello, I'm Gallant and this is Vista. And you are Iron Lass Red?" he asked.

"Yeah, Iron Lass had to take off, but I'm always up to meet the Wards," she honestly replied. SQUEEEEE!

Vista tried to play with space and volume the giant armor stood in, only to find it blocked by someone inside it. So not a remote. "I don't think that the PR department would let you keep such a strict design. It's all business, isn't it?"

"Iron Lass is even working on more improvements. She was pretty pissed at how useless she felt at the Endbringer fight in Madison," Iron Lass Red said.

"Are you planning to go to the next Endbringer fight?" Vista asked.

"Not really. Or at least, not yet," she replied.

* * *

Armsmaster watched the figure in the room below through the mirrored window as Taylor ripped up the schematics for the anti-gravity device. Not to destroy it, but to separate it into three devices.

"What is she doing?" Armsmaster asked aloud.

The three PRT specialists in Tinker technology nodded to themselves.

"Those are the three parts of the device that 'don't make sense' so to speak," Timothy Dalton explained. The older engineer and scientist seemed very interested.

The Protectorate leader tried to tamp down his disappointment. "The part that a Tinker wouldn't even notice really, right?"

Dragon spoke up for the first time on her virtual connection, "I've reverse engineered a few Tinker devices and I've found that there are sometimes whole parts of the device that need to be redesigned." The only simple thing she had done had been containment foam. And even that took weeks.

"So she's just a gifted engineer?" Armsmaster said with distaste. Director Piggot would not be happy about antagonizing a non-parahuman.

"Most likely. She may also be a Tinker that can reverse engineer other Tinker's works. That is highly unlikely, but possible," Timothy explained as he scribbled notes.

"Very interesting. She's narrowed down the exact breaks in the schematic that make jumps in transition effects," Dragon said.

Down in the shop, Taylor taped each of the three parts of the blueprints onto the whiteboard. She then quickly wrote 'power flux compensator', 'particle field suffuser' and 'gravity quark/particle generator'.

All of the people started to decipher the ideas.

"She's probably right, though I think there might be another step or two parts to the particle generator," Dragon mused aloud.

"Hmm. A better theory than I've seen from the PRT non-parahuman think tank," Theresa, another PRT engineer, said with a bit of envy.

Taylor started to write and rewrite an equation on the whiteboard to the left of the one with the ripped up schematic. After five minutes, she pulled out her phone to tap out a quick text and then put it down on the desk.

"Interesting. The Wizard of Oz scenario?" the PRT investigative agent Mitch Manners asked the rest.

"The PRT owns the repeaters for use in the building, so we can see what she sent and what she receives," Armsmaster said as he started to type at the one station set up for standing people. Always handy for people in armor that could not sit down on normal chairs. "Ten, no eleven pictures of pages in a physics book?"

"She's printing them out now. Referring to regular science physics books is a notch against being a Thinker or Tinker, isn't it?" Theresa asked her supervisor.

Timothy nodded. "Usually. We'll have to see. If she cracks anti-gravity, she might change the whole world."

"But it's still parahuman science, which means she could be a Thinker?" Mitch, the PRT detective, asked.

"There _are_ just human geniuses. Einstein, Curry and Hawkings are just human," Armsmaster said in a curt tone. Dedicated and smart people could change the world!

"It would not be fully conclusive," Theresa noted as she nervously stroked her graying bangs behind her ear.

Taylor finished up her equation and then sketched a quick diagram. She then moved on to the second break in the schematic. The equation on this filled in faster and then she sketched a couple of quick diagrams.

"That's rather ingenious. I'm not sure you can actually physically _make_ it, but would potentially diffuse the particles," Thomas mused aloud.

"I can think of a couple of ways to do it based on that sketch," Dragon said in an intrigued tone. Antigravity always eluded her investigations.

"A Tinker would not be figuring out the math behind the devices first," a new voice said from the darkest corner of the room. A previously empty corner.

"Wrath," Armsmaster said carefully. "So the Guardian Alliance finally arrived?"

"Blurrest is patrolling to get a feel for the city while the Marshall is scoping out the different bars that the gangs frequent. The rest of them will be arriving in a few hours after they finish writing up the final report on the gangs we cut back in Pittsburg. Your president wanted us as far from Laredo as possible after we crushed four paracartels," Wrath said as he continued to watch the progress of the girl below.

"You did violate Mexico's sovereignty several times," the local leader of the Protectorate noted.

"Perfectly within rules, as we were in active pursuit when they fled over the border. Can any of you follow this math?" the dark cloaked figure of Earth Aleph's dark side of New York City asked.

"I'm not sure I know of anyone here in Brockton Bay that can, actually," Timothy said. "I may have to call my friends over in M.I.T. to help decipher this."

"Dammit," Mitch said. "So it looks like she is just smart?"

Armsmaster shook his head. "No, I don't think so. School records show her as a very bright student, but not a genius of this caliber until this school year. I think we might have to try and track down more of this mysterious tinker device that she allegedly ran into last summer."

Mitch furrowed his eyebrows at that. "We have gotten nothing on that. The closest match is Iron Lass." He gustered his head towards Taylor in the room below. "And we've seen her tech improve."

"All sensors are showing negative except for a very nice Dragonphone. So it's unlikely to be cybernetic implants from the benefactor. None of the nanobot structures at all, either." Armsmaster hated this. It should be conclusive, rather than not flushing out the Tinker like planned.

"I think she's cracked the anti-graviton particle," Dragon said as she started to go through the steps for herself.

Theresa whistled. "Call your drinking buddy from M.I.T., Timothy."

Down below, Taylor pulled out her smart phone and took pictures of _her_ work. She then typed in direction to her good girl Friday to start the patent process.

"Jackpot."

* * *

An hour later and another 'friendly' warning, Taylor headed home on the bus. The long ride calmed her down a bit and she exited the last transfer in a better mood. She pulled her new coat's hood up as snow fell from the sky as she ignored the black sedan that followed her all the way home.

That soured her mood right back.

The Hebert residence looked good again. Money had allowed them to fix the few issues and replace the siding. And all that work pointed at the Dockworkers Union. Not made up work, of course. New and very sturdy doors made everything much more secure.

She closed the front door behind her. "Dad?"

"In the kitchen, Taylor," he called back. He sat at the table with cyber control gloves on and a hologram HUD from tech goggles for the Mark 2 remote control system flickering as he flew it through the air.

"So how did it go being Iron Lass?" Taylor asked.

"Pretty good. I had to leave when Dauntless tried to set up a Ward pitch. I don't think I could have faked the Tinker talk with Gallant," he explained.

Taylor nodded as she took her earbud and put it in. Not wearing _any_ tech had left her feeling quite naked and defenseless. She rubbed her left shoulder and wondered at the phantom twinge again. "Having both of the armors moving around while I broke their test should muddy the water a little bit. Hey, Friday? Make sure that the core reactor and swarm get back to me tonight, okay?"

"Of course, T. You two are still planning on watching a movie for family night, right?" Friday said.

"Yeah. I can double check my homework and then go over the patent application," she replied in agreement. She doffed her coat and laid it across the back of her chair at the kitchen table.

"So are we watching that movie about the girl that triggered with the powers of insects?" Danny asked as he set aside the controls so that Taylor could put them away on her person along with her holdout repulsor.

"I'd rather watch that spy movie. I think I've had enough of _heroes_ today."

Danny just started laughing at her for that.

* * *

Emma waved goodbye to her dad and trotted into school. Inches of snow covered everything and even made Winslow look normal.

"Hey, Emma!" Madison called out and waved.

Sophia looked over. "What's up, Red?"

"School for us plebs," she replied as she walked through the crowd of students all around her. "Have you seen Taylor?"

"There she is," Madison said as she pointed to the thin figure over to her locker just thirty feet away. "Hey, Taylor!"

"Good morning. Or it would be if the snow would go away," Taylor replied in a grumble. "You ready for your English test?"

"I think so-"

A gunshot sounded and froze all of the students.

"Man, Winslow is still a shithole," a young man's voice called out.

The hackles on Taylor's neck stood up.

"Who the fuck are you?" a big and burly Polynesian demanded.

The cape in his yellow T-shirt, leather jacket and yellow Zorro mask just grinned. "I'm fucking Torrent, bitches. And I'm here for Ralph and Billy. You know, shitty Empire Eighty-Eight thugs in the making. Leave your phones in your pockets, girls and boys. I don't want to hurt you, but I am here to put a hurting on those two jack asses. And here they are," Torrent said with eagerness in his voice.

Four of his gang dragged two white and bald kids through the crowd.

"You can't fucking do this!" Ralph Winston shouted.

"You put the brother of a friend in the hospital. You don't get to say jack shit, you racist asshole," Torrent said as he walked towards their side of the opening in the crowd.

"Shit-shit," Sophia said as she looked around.

Emma stood frozen other than her clenching, trembling hands. All around them, people whispered and talked in low tones.

Torrent sent a spray of his acid to strike the wall and set the paint on a locker to sizzling. "Shut the fuck up!"

Madison felt a drop hit her forehead that started to burn in pain. She screamed in shock due to the injury and clapped her hand to her forehead, which also started to burn.

"Friday, Arcadia-Zeta override. December 16, 1991," Taylor said in a voice that cut through all the hubbub.

"Activating," Friday said.

Taylor's clothing and the large backpack all fuzzed and reformed into red and gold armor. The reprogrammed Mark LI that originally gave her the memories and genius of Tony Stark. The left arm instantly reshaped itself into a concave shield that caught the stream of acid from Torrent and kept it from harming the crowd.

"Wrong move, asshole," Iron Lass said as she shot him with a non-lethal burst of her right hand repulsor. Torrent went flying to slam into two lockers and slumped to the ground.

Two more repulsor blasts sounded as Emma fired her holdout repulsor at two of the Cracked Skull to bowl them over.

One of the last two thugs turned and ran. The other one pointed his gun at the redhead.

"Don't move or I'll shoot-" he started to say when Sophia grabbed and tackled his arm.

Two more repulsors struck him from two different directions.

"Damn it," Iron Lass muttered to herself. All that work to throw off the Protectorate ruined by a two bit hood with super powers. She walked over and twisted the gun out of his hand.

Off in the distance, sirens sounded as the police reacted with speed for once.

"Is anyone hurt?" Iron Lass called out.

Madison and three other students raised their hand.

"Go wash it off in the bathroom right now," she ordered.

"That's the freshman electronics geek?" one of the seniors on the cheerleader squad said.

"Friday, tell Dad and the Barnes to go to ground or the police." Iron Lass turned to keep an eye on Torrent, only to see a hole in the lockers and floor. "And great, he got away." Asshole.


	8. Bureaucrats and the Barrister

Taylor sighed as police and PRT officers escorted people to different rooms for quick witness interviews. And here comes Hero Junior. He left behind Assault and Battery to deal with the administrative part of dealing with an emergency situation.

"I'm still not a Tinker," Taylor said as she cut Kid Win off. "I have _not_ had a trigger event and I _know_ how my stuff works. And I still have to study up on new sciences and engineering all the time."

Kid Win shrugged his shoulders. "So you are a Thinker that basically functions like a Tinker. End result is that you still build super-tech. The PRT ratings are just a rough guideline on how to deal with threats, not an in depth study on powers. I had to listen to Vista for half an hour before I finally understood that."

"Hmm. Still annoying," Taylor said. "I did all that effort to stay out of people's attention and one idiot..."

A faceless PRT trooper walked up in his tac-suit. "Miss Hebert? Miss Barnes? If you could come with us to PRT HQ? Director Piggot wants to have a discussion with you and your parents."

Taylor idly started to think of how to improve it and save costs. "I guess. But I think we'll show up in our own way. If you don't mind." She said the last as if to try to be polite. "We'll probably get there faster than you will. 'Red', your ride is here.

The shriek of thrusters cut out as the Mark 2 landed outside and then walked in.

Two PRT troopers aimed their containment foam sprayers at it, but did not actually attack.

"This is your new backup suit?" Emma said with excitement as it stopped in front of her and pivoted to face its back to her.

It cracked open to allow her to step into her 'upgrade'. A ripple of color changed the limited amount of gold to silver.

"For now. I've got more upgrades in mind, but this suit should work as my base armor," Taylor explained. "Shall we?"

They headed outside, shot into the air and within a minute, landed on the helipad next to the PRT headquarters. They walked to the heavily defended front entrance and then to the visitor's desk.

"Iron Lass and Iron Lass Red to see Director Piggot," Taylor explained.

"If we could confirm one of your identities-" the receptionist only paused a second as Taylor retracted the helmet for a second, "-and we'll see about getting you up to visit."

Ten minutes later, an intern led them to a normal office door with no sign or even a number.

"Director? The heroes from Winslow are here," the young man said. "Mr. Hebert and Mr. and Mrs. Barnes are still enroute."

"Thank you, Jaune. Come in, ladies." Director Piggot looked heavy in an unhealthy and heavyset way with an unflattering blonde bob of hair. "I have to admit that I am a bit upset with you, Miss Hebert. The PRT does not try to find Tinkers 'just because'. You are lucky that you did not find yourself press-ganged into the Empire or doped up by the Merchants."

"Which wouldn't work anyways. I am not a Tinker. I thought I proved that when I deciphered that antigravity unit," Iron Lass said as she folded her arms over her chest even as she took in the slightly worn office and the long couch on the left wall. "And I've taken steps to protect myself and my family and friends. As you can see."

"Yes. About that, do you normally arm all of your friends with Tinker weapons?" Piggot demanded.

"With holdout weapons and trackers? Yes, I do arm all of those that know about my armor and such," Taylor replied.

Piggot glared at her for that. "Well, I can't totally blame you for that. It may have saved a few lives today. Giving a Tinker weapon to a 14 year old girl is _very_ irresponsible," Piggot stated in a firm, uncompromising voice.

" _I_ am a 14 year old girl, you know. And Red and Shadowstalker both have saved women from the ABB's sex slave trade." Taylor held her tongue for a second to get a hold of her emotions. "I don't even understand how you can allow that at all!"

"Yeah!" Emma said in support.

"We do try to arrest traffickers and save the victims, _when we can_. The PRT and our local Protectorate heroes are stretched to the limit keeping a lid on the gangs." Emily gripped her right hand into a fist with enough pressure to keep her knuckles white.

Iron Lass retracted her helmet and then relaxed her stance with her arms across her torso. "You want us in the Wards."

"No, you as a Tinker _need_ to be in the Wards. Outside of that suit of armor, you are just a weak and normal girl," she snapped out.

"No, I would be a genius, millionaire businesswoman and soon to be philanthropist. And wow did that trigger some deja vu," Taylor said as she looked poleaxed for a second.

"And what about me?" Emma said as her armor's visor opened.

Piggot stared at her a long moment. "As you are not a parahuman by even the loosest rules, the most the PRT could do is offer to transfer you to Arcadia and suggest that you relocate. In six months, no one will remember you."

"Budding teen model and very photogenic," Taylor noted with a snort of amusement.

Emma giggled a little nervously.

The adult closed her eyes for a second. "Of course, she is. So would you agree to the Wards if your friend joined?" she asked the girls.

"Yes!"

"No." Taylor gave her friend a flat stare.

The director steepled her hands in front of her on the desk. "May I ask you for the reasons for your refusal, Miss Hebert? This is a matter of life and death for your _families_."

The genius inventor frowned as she considered the best way to say this. Time to channel her inner Tony a bit more. "Beyond schooling, my problems basically amount to stifling oversight, needless budget control and interference with running my mundane business. And then finally, you and Armsmaster, Director Piggot."

"Continue, please," she asked in a tone that made it less a request and more of an order.

"I don't think Armsmaster would _mean_ to cause problems, but I would want to see if we could work together on some projects first. There could be potential personality conflicts." Taylor swallowed her too dry mouth. "From my personal background check on yourself, I found a startling lack of commendations and praise, unlike almost every other major PRT director."

"Are you calling me a bigot, Miss Hebert?" Director Piggot demanded in a barely controlled tone of voice.

"Perhaps unintentionally. But you don't trust parahumans since Ellisburg, do you?"

"Um...?" Emma muttered. That sounded familiar.

"What makes you say that?" she asked in a slightly strained voice.

"Several honors for being injured in the line of duty and retired from active duty as a trooper at that time. Along with the dialysis machine in the corner indicates that you do not trust a parahuman to heal your injuries. Considering the danger of your position and the fact you may end up in the hands of villains, that's beyond just prideful." Taylor stared at the older woman and refused to look away.

"My leg and kidney do not affect my ability to do my job. So your point is frankly bullshit."

Gotcha. "Then you won't mind having Fulcrum regenerate those wounds at all. She did just get cleared to work at the local hospitals after PRT power testing."

Piggot flushed in anger as she should have seen that coming. "I will not be dictated to by a young teen!"

"And why should I let you dictate and control me? Even if you were the stick more than the carrot sort, I should have been able to find more than three awards for valor from your tenure here as director. And _those_ three were posthumously."

"I think we are done here," the director said. Her blue eyes glared hard at the armored figure.

"Hopefully we can still work together to help Brockton Bay." The nanobot armor sealed up around her face and she let herself out of the room. Two PRT troopers followed her with Iron Lass Red.

She made a beeline for the nearest bathroom as switched her armor to clothing mode. She then leaned against the wall and let herself breathe rapidly.

"Taylor! Are you alright?" Emma asked even as she triggered the exit function on her own armor.

"No! Oh my god I didn't realize how tough that was going to be and she's a total hard ass and probably hates my guts more than she hates Nilbog and I threw it all in her face and I bet she's going to try and force me into the Wards anyways and then I won't be able to build my anti-Endbringer weapons or really help fix Brockton Bay and what did I do because I really shouldn't have let out my inner Tony because my god can he be an asshole and do I want to be that person at fifteen and trying to get into college already-"

"Breathe, Taylor. Take a deep breath and hold it and don't say anything for a minute. You are going to calm down and then we are going to talk to our parents and figure out a solution that keeps everyone a hero." Emma tugged her friend to stand up straight and then hugged her tightly. "Okay?"

"Okay. Thanks, Emma. I think that's been building up a while." And she vowed to never tell anyone that she found the idea of attractive redheads _interesting_. Male or female. But no thoughts about her best friend ever!

* * *

Danny stepped inside the PRT's main foyer with his cell phone to his ear. "-no, keep at it. The SR&D contract is still on the up and up. Yes, even if my daughter is the one that needs that large warehouse refurbished and I'm sending work towards the the Dockworkers Union. I know it sounds crazy, but I have to deal with the PRT and Protectorate right now thanks to that jerk Torrent attacking Winslow. I'll call you later."

Alan Barnes waved to his friend. "Danny, over here."

His wife, Zoe, gave him a flat glare and tried to put up a brave face to their old friend. "Anne is on her way."

"I just got a message from Friday that Taylor has already met with Director Piggot. Which she shouldn't have done without me there," Danny noted.

"We need a private room so we can talk things through and make plans rather than just reacting," the lawyer said as he tapped the toe of his shoe anxiously.

Two minutes later, Anne Barnes entered and then power walked over to her parents and hugged her dad and then her mother.

"So when did my baby sister turn into a hero?" Anne demanded.

"Not here. Come on." Alan stood up straighter and took a deeper breath and walked to the receptionist's desk. "Barnes and Hebert here to see the director. We would like the use of a conference room before we meet with her as we have things that we need to go over with our daughters."

"Um, I'll see what we can do?" the woman said. She picked up the phone and started to talk to her supervisor.

Five minutes later they were all led to a conference room. When they opened the door, they saw Taylor and Emma sitting at a table with pamphlets.

"I so totally wouldn't fly into the airports no go zone," Emma said.

"Unless you were going out to sea, you probably wouldn't even notice it. But these do have- Oh, hi Dad!" Taylor said as she hopped to her feet and ran over to hug him.

"Can't keep out of trouble, huh?" he asked as he tussled Taylor's hair.

"That was so not my fault and Torrent started to shoot acid around and burned three student including our friend Madison and I couldn't _not_ step up and stop him and rescue those people and then we met Director Piggot while waiting for you and she tried to do the hardball thing and I told her about that background check on her I did and boy did she not like that and then we left so I could go have a panic attack in the bathroom-"

"Breathe, Taylor," Emma said as she and Danny patted her back.

Alan coughed. "Okay, you two. What did you do wrong?"

Emma winced. "We didn't wait for you or another lawyer."

"So what did you say to her?" the lawyer asked.

"I told her I didn't want to join the Wards and then explained several reasons, one of which was the director herself. That ended that meeting until you could get here," Taylor said even though she kept her hug with her father going. "I'm pretty sure she has big hangups with parahumans due to being one of the last two survivors against Nibolg. Along with PRT oversight on any of my inventions would mean that I would effectively be crippled."

"Pros and cons?" Danny asked.

"The Wards are protected better than anything we can do," Zoe said with a frown.

"So we hire bodyguards and get in to Arcadia. We'll have to move somewhere more secure," Taylor explained as she juggled thoughts. "Move into one of the nicer hotels today while we figure out the move. And not at Brockton Bay, Dad."

"The director lady said that since I'm not a parahuman that they just want me to quit and lay low. But I've been doing good in the Iron Lass armor," Emma said with a stubborn look on her face.

"So we don't join the Wards directly. I try to get affiliate status like New Wave does and see if the PRT is willing to help us set up security arrangements. Anne, I need to get you and Auntie Zoe some holdout repulsors with trackers."

"From what I do know about parahuman vigilante laws, you two did nothing wrong at Winslow. So even if they complain about weapons or tech brought in, you are covered," Alan told them all. "Do not antagonize them needlessly. Or antagonize them more. That means, Danny, controlling your temper."

Danny nodded. "Right. I'll try my best."

"Have you boys and girls figured out everything important?" Zoe asked to get things moving.

"Enough for now."

They filed out of the room to go up to speak to Director Piggot again. A ripple in the air flowed from the corner and across the room then _through_ the door. Long practice kept the ripple from direct view of possible cameras until Wrath stepped out of his cloaking field into the PRT cafeteria.

"Exceed, Marshall," Wrath called out as he continued walking over to the 'Protectorate GA' members.

"Poking around like normal?" the dark haired woman asked.

"Keeping an eye on the latest parahuman incident. She may be useful in _that_ project," he said in a gruff voice.

"Always a good thing," the Marshall said as his glowing blue eyes shone against his obsidian skin while he studied the stealth specialist. "What _do_ you think of Iron Lass?"

"I wish I could make a power armor like that. The last time I tried, my attempt ended up being _larger_ than her first effort with a lot less capability," Wrath replied with a rueful grin on his lips. "How goes your efforts at tracking down Empire hotspots?"

Exceed looked over at the bizarre looking Marshall with a raised eyebrow. "My undercover work hasn't netted me much."

"I have been working through a couple of promising leads, but I must work slowly and carefully," the Marshall explained.

Wrath frowned as he looked at the farthest point of the room. "Something feels off. What is different about Brockton Bay?"

* * *

"This is like the opposite of low key," She-Devil said as she punched a neo-nazi thug in the face hard enough to knock him off his feet and back five feet. He landed next to a big truck turned sideways on the street.

Louder gunshots sounded out and left a row of bruises up her bare arm.

"Not even high explosive armor piercing shots?" Victor said as he ran behind cover while firing while twisting at the hip.

The blue-garbed Blurrest flickered around the battlefield punching or taking away weapons from the Empire Eighty-Eight thugs.

She-Devil kicked the large truck in front of her to skid over and move the car Victor hid behind. He fell and rolled back to his feet, taking a potshot at Blurrest who zipped behind another truck.

"You're lucky that the Protectorate frowns on me using my sword on non-brutes," the muscular woman said as she leaped over the car and snapped a kick at his head.

"Ha! Exceed did too back home," the speedster said as he zipped back and forth. Then he turned and headed away to disappear down the road.

Victor popped up to fire some more HEAP rounds at She-Devil as he backed up and then frowned as she just smiled.

"What are you smiling about-?" he demanded as he headed to where he could pick up some superspeed of his own. Then something with the massive force hit his cheek and sent him flying back into a car. "What the fuck, you could have killed me!"

"Nah, you still got that invulnerability going. Probably about to wear off, I bet." Blurrest had a huge grin on his face. "Heads up," he called out. "Incoming ABB in vans. Looks like this is ABB turf."

 _"Console to Blurrest and She-Devil. Orders are to disengage before it turns into a major incident. Do not engage Lung or Oni Lee,"_ the male operator informed them over the comlink.

Without Exceed, She-Devil knew that her odds of defeating Lung alone were low. "She-Devil confirm. Blurrest, perimeter sweep. Drag any downed people out of the area and warn the Empire about Lung. No one needs to die today."

"Roger-roger!" he called out and zipped away.

"I can't believe he _likes_ those movies," the leather-armor wearing woman said as she grabbed two of the nearest unconscious gang members and then shot into the air away from the approaching white vans.

Victor parkoured over the hood of a car and then down an alleyway at decent speeds. He dropped two flashbang grenades with a high tech (but not Tinker tech) set of proximity sensors.

* * *

The door to the largest and most secure conference room in the Brocketon Bay PRT headquarters opened to admit the heavy set director and the silver and blue armored leader of the Protectorates. She moved to the head of the table.

"Sorry for the delay, but the ABB and Empire have been having small turf fights for the last week. Armsmaster is here as head of the Protectorate and Wards," Piggot stated as she opened the top folder in front of her.

"Good morning," Armsmaster said as he nodded to the group. His fingers nearly itched to take a look at Iron Lass's second suit of power armor that stood stiffly and deactivated to the side. He set himself to parade rest as the heavy wood bench had not been brought in for him. "I was under the impression that there were two Iron Lass armors here today."

Taylor turned to look at him. "My armor is currently in low profile mode."

"Interesting," he replied as his tinkering itch grew.

"You two can talk tinkering later," Piggot said in a curt manner. "Right now we need to focus on what to do with two independent heroes. Mr. Hebert, your daughter appears to have made up her mind to not even look at joining the Wards. I sincerely find that distressing as the Wards are here to help young parahumans and have them socialize in a controlled manner."

"Still not a Tinker," Taylor muttered as she slouched in her chair as only a teenager could.

"We have been discussing how to potentially deal with things on our own," Alan said. "I notice you did not include my daughter at all."

Piggot tapped her fingers on the table for a moment. "Currently, including Emma Barnes into the Wards is a delicate situation. While they are good kids, they are _teens_. And there is the worry that they may feel that a non-parahuman who is _only_ using advanced tinker tech armor would be an intrusion and a slight. The fact that she did not undergo the trauma of a trigger event may breed long term resentment."

"Emma may not have had one of those trigger events, but she was attacked and nearly mutilated by the ABB last summer. Only the intervention of a vigilante saved her from horrific wounds and scars," Zoe shot back.

Emma shot her mother a betrayed look.

"That is a valid point to bring up. It could help smooth things over. I would not be _against_ her joining if that helped matters," Armsmaster said as he considered matters.

That perked up the redhead.

"Now, Miss Hebert? If you don't mind answering some questions about where this all started? June 20th, 2009, right? You and your father reported you had an encounter with an unknown set of destroyed power armor that just happened to be red and gold." Piggot shot the girl a look. "We don't take kindly to people lying to the PRT out of the blue like that."

Taylor bit her bottom lip as she thought over this scenario. At her dad's nod, she spoke up. "I did not lie about that situation. At that time I had no idea who or what that all was. Later, I found out that I could repair, design and build technological devices."

"There were no indications of cybernetic implants in your head," Armsmaster said with a frown.

"There were only ever microscopic nanobots that were flushed out of my system a few days later. The armor, catastrophically damaged as it was, attempted to upload the memories of a superhero known as Iron Man." Taylor huffed. "I don't think it worked quite correctly, as I am still mostly myself."

"A Case 32?" Armsmaster asked.

Everyone looked at him in surprise.

"Is that like those monster capes, the Case 53s?" Anne asked in intense curiosity. "What? I'm taking Parahumans 101 at Brockton Bay City College!"

"Yes, and no. The Cases as we refer to them are particular types of parahumans. A Case 1, for instance, we would now refer to as a blaster. Case 32s are not technically parahumans, but the creations of a parahuman that exhibit their own powers. There have been a few wet tinkers that cybernetically improved a few people." His mouth showed a grimace. "It generally did not turn out well over the long term."

"Tony Stark (oh, that's the real name for Iron Man) didn't have a secret ID on his world. Being incredibly wealthy allowed him to have his own protection and he was one of their first modern superheroes." Taylor frowned, as she remembered _years_ of heroing, even though he had debuted in 2008.

"I was unable to find any records of this Iron Man or Tony Stark." Armsmaster tilted his head to the girl.

"From what I remember, he was from another Earth. And I think he might be dead. The memory imprinting was supposed to be a last ditch failsafe." Taylor's eyes widened as a memory struck her hard enough to cause her to gasp.

"Taylor?" Danny asked as he put his hand on her shoulder which jerked and pulled away.

"Sorry, Dad. Just had a flashback to someone shattering a moon and _throwing_ it at Tony during one of his fights." She gulped and nodded. "Sorry, that never happened before. But I never tried to really _recall_ any of his life before. I usually just get sarcastic sayings and an urge to drink and I'm too young to drink and I'm starting to babble again aren't I and-"

Emma sighed and kicked friend's ankle hard.

"Ow!" Taylor glared at her friend.

"She starts to babble if she gets nervous or stressed," Emma said with unconcern. Anne giggled at her sister and friend.

Armsmaster chuckled at that as Piggot relaxed ever so slightly.

"Miss Hebert and I had _words_ earlier where she stated she was not interested in the Wards for various reasons-"

"And why were you having that talk with our daughters without us, their parents, there?" Alan demanded a bit angrily.

"It was _not_ meant as a slight or to entrap them. In fact, legally, I couldn't use anything they said there in a court case." Piggot shrugged her shoulders. "I have found that most of the time that talking directly with the parahuman allows for a lot more solving of problems. And in the few where it doesn't apply, I would have asked them to wait for their parents after a while."

"Director Piggot stated that you thought working under me or herself would likely not work out. Could you explain that a little better?" Armsmaster asked.

"I would like to find out what is like to work with on a project or two first to make sure we wouldn't have conflicts. There are stories about professors stealing their student's work or we could just clash horribly." Taylor sighed. "I'd be open to being an affiliate hero team and work with the Protectorate and Wards before I commit to something with as much oversight as you fall under. I have some anti-Endbringer weapons I'm working on that I think your oversight department would, um, have kittens over?"

"There is nothing that is going to threaten the safety of the city, is there?" Armsmaster called out abruptly.

"No, the worst that could happen is that some robotic waldos have to be repaired. I'll have to get a fabrication shop set up someplace rated for high explosive at some point to actually _build_ it," Taylor said with a small grin. "Nitramene is very volatile, but operates under some very weird physics."

"We have not taken the bull by the horns here," Piggot noted. "What are you going to be doing about your daughter's safety?"

"We are going to look at moving to a more secluded location that we can secure a bit more. Taylor has already built us holdout weapons that would trigger an alert." Danny sighed and rubbed his hand through his thinning hair. "They can't stay in high school."

"It would be too dangerous with the gang presence. I wasn't happy with my daughters going there before their secret ID's got outed," Zoe said with a severe frown on her face.

"And what are you going to offer me to help make that happen?" Piggot said in a dry tone of voice.

"Well, I'm not going to build you a ton of Iron Lass armor knockoffs. Um, how about I look at updating your PRT trooper armor _design_ and build you a couple of emergency power plants that can generate 3 gigawatts of power. As a quid pro quid gesture," Taylor offered.

"How much maintenance are we looking at?" Armsmaster asked as he thought back to the brainstorming he and Dragon had on the nuclear power cell idea.

"Um, should be good for at least five years. Then you'll have to replace the palladium and clean out the silver isotopes residue. So you might need an engineer with some basic toxic metal handling." Taylor gave them a grin.

"And you just happen to have this design already?" Armsmaster asked.

"Um, I have a project that needs a _lot_ of power. And once it's over, I'm going to have them as spares afterwards. I was thinking of donating one to the local power company as long as they passed the savings on to the customers."

"And what do you need that requires _that much power_?" the Protectorate leader asked with only a hint of stress.

"I need to synthesize a few elements that haven't been discovered on this Earth," she explained as excitement crept into her voice.

"Taylor, can you _make_ gold or something?" Danny asked in a strangled voice.

"Scientists have been doing that for almost a century. Isn't anywhere near cost effective unless you are making Californium 252 or something," the genius teen engineer explained as if it were just the most basic thing in the world. And Starkium resided up in the 300s, which required some very odd and energetic techniques to produce.

Piggot just sighed. _She was a mad scientist type. Wonderful._

* * *

Spiker ran down the street and created even more of her metal spike caltrops in the air. The two foot wide spike balls weren't really dangerous by themselves, but worked great for denying movement. And if they could fall from high enough, they could kill.

"Spiker, Spiker, Spiker! Why you gotta dump all dis shit on me, girl!" the grungy looking cape with a bandanna mask over the top of his head had a _worse_ costume than she did. He laid a few overlapping fields to clear out the spike balls in front of him.

"What do the fucking Merchants want with me?" she shouted back as she built up a short wall of interlocking spike-balls anchored to the ground.

"We want you and your posse. With you and our new Tinker, we are going to be moving up in the world," Skidmark said and smiled wide enough to show his horrid teeth.

"Tinker?" Spiker asked. "If this is because we're black, you are a crazy mo-fo if you think I want to paint that big of a target on my back!" She took off towards an alleyway.

And promptly ran into something blocking her way. The stealth field fizzled and died.

"Shit! I just got that working!" the skanky blonde with heavy makeup over her face said. "Why did my barrier just up and quit? That was two weeks worth of work!"

"My nose," Spiker said as she sat on her ass and held her injured nose. "Fuckers! I'm not joining the druggie gang! That shit killed my pa."

Skidmark sighed. "Look, if you don't wanna do the good shit, we won't fucking make you. You are just lucky that I heard that the ABB hit your shitty safehouse while you were out. Damn cocksuckers."

Shit, shit, shit, shit. She needed something. Lung wanted her dead, the Empire would do _worse_ and these losers wanted to force her to join. Why couldn't she have a useful power like the freshman Hebert at school? Her dark eyes blinked through the tears under her mask of spikes.

A garbage giant (literally made of trash!) tromped around the corner a block away. "Boss, saw some skinheads calling their friends as they drove off."

"Load it up, assholes! Unless you want to be barbecued by the overgrown iguana," Skidmark called out.

Wait, that Hebert girl had a black friend, Spiker remembered. Maybe she could hook her up with some help? Girl had balls to out herself to save any idiots at Winslow. "Fine, just for now. I gotta think this shit through. Okay?"


	9. School Daze and Wanderings

**In loving memory of Stan Lee (1922-2018), Rest in Peace.  
Excelsior!**

Director Piggot sat in a cramped office on her secure, home notebook writing a report. And even struggled with her budget and how to stretch it for the full year.

"You can't go in there," one of her plain clothed PRT troopers said from outside the office.

"This is really suspicious," a teen girl said.

The director tilted her head and then quickly tapped a text message to her bodyguard.

"Um, you can go in now," he said a couple of moments later.

The door opened and in stepped a pretty, blonde girl who looked surprised to see a heavy set, middle-age woman.

"Victoria Dallon, I assume as you are not wearing any sort of an outfit. I am Director Emily Piggot. Can I help you?" she asked as she secured her computer until after this meeting.

"I- Uh. I can't think of a good reason for you to be here. Are you really the director?" Vickie asked a bit nervously.

"I am merely taking advantage of Fulcrum's offer to help PRT personnel with long term injuries. A certain person pointed out that refusing parahuman treatment left the city and the PRT here weaker," Piggot explained in a bland tone.

"Oh, okay. Why didn't the guy outside just say they are here for some of the healing?" she asked petulantly.

"Operational security. If the villains thought I was seriously injured or in an unprotected area, they might attempt a kidnapping."

"Guess that makes sense," Vickie said. "Well, hope you get better soon. How much do you have to heal?"

"Just some tissue damage to my leg and damage to my kidneys."

"Cool. Amy's power is pretty useful, if not directly combat effective. We're pretty sure that she cured Dad of his depression and Mom is acting a lot less stressed these days." Vicky lifted off the ground.

Piggot narrowed her eyes. "Really? I'll have to see if that works on PTSD. A lot of good people have been left damaged by extreme experiences."

"I'll check with Fulcrum on that." Vicky gave her a wave and floated out the door.

* * *

Taylor grabbed her backpack from near the door and stepped out. The door locked behind her as she spotted her best friend exiting her own room at the nicest hotel in Brockton Bay. "Hey, Emma! Ready for our first day at Arcadia?"

"Not really. All my best outfits are at home. Everyone is going to think I'm some frumpy stay at home girl," the redhead complained.

Taylor shook her head in mock despair.

They both walked to the stairs. Taylor checked for anyone in the stairwell even as she nodded to the security guard hired by her company. "Good morning, Jeremy."

"Good morning, Miss Hebert," the black guard said with a guarded smile. "Been a quiet night so far. A vetted PRT plainclothes officer has been by and your other bodyguards have been briefed with passwords and counter-signs."

"We'll be using the roof to leave for school, so keep our families safe, okay?" Taylor said as she opened the door.

"Of course, ma'am."

The nanobots started to shimmer across Taylor's form as her Iron Lass armor reformed on her. "Mirage field is set up. You see that on your phone?"

"I do," Emma said as she looked over the security options on the phone. "I can't believe you chipped us."

"I chipped myself, too."

They exited onto the roof and a glowing ring appeared on the level area in front of them. The Iron Lass Mark 2 decloaked in the middle and opened up so that Emma could climb in. "I can't wait until you upgrade to a new armor."

"I didn't build this one. I just helped get it repaired," Taylor noted.

"You could build it, I bet," Emma replied as her eyes tracked the startup list on the HUD.

"All I need is about fifteen million dollars worth of workshop and about three million in supplies," the genius replied in a snarky tone.

They shot into the sky and a quick arc to land in front of the large and modern high school of Arcadia. Students gathered around but left enough space for them to debark. Emma let the armor unfold as she casually stepped out. The Iron Man mark LI shifted back to a more normal outfit and backpack for Taylor.

So both girls nearly freaked out as a blond shot towards them through the air.

"Oh, wow! Two more public heroes! Uh, what are you pointing at me?" Vicky Dallon asked as two palm repulsors filled her view at eye level.

"You do realize that we were attacked at school yesterday, right?" Emma said as she retracted the holdout repulsor to its bracelet form.

"Vicky! You have got to quit flying off the handle," her sister said as she palmed her face. Amy walked over to them. "Sorry about that. Vicky is impulsive."

"Hey kids? How about you move to the side so that other students can get to class?" a really old teacher with white hair and a large mustache called out. He ambled to the other side to keep an eye on all the student. "Heroes these days, they don't know how good they have it."

"Um, right Mr. Lee!" Vicky called out. "Come on."

Taylor nodded. "Thanks. Which way to the office?" she asked as she stepped through the door into the school.

"This way," Amy said as she set out down the hall and then turned right.

The wall and lone door of bullet resistant glass filled the next seventy-five feet around that corner. Taylor frowned.

"What's wrong?" Emma asked her best friend.

"Not looking forward to a whole day of assessments to find out which classes we'll be put in."

"Yeah, that doesn't sound fun. But it's not going to go away if we ignore it."

* * *

Their very, very long day of testing ended at two thirty in the afternoon.

"I think I sprained my dumb brain," Emma complained as they walked outside.

Taylor rolled her eyes. "I really hate it when you put yourself down. You are not dumb, Emma."

"I know that, but that was really hard."

"Yeah. I feel like my brains are about to leak out of my ears, too. Do you have any plans for this afternoon?" she asked her best friend.

"Not really." Emma pulled out her phone and checked for messages. "Mom, Dad and Anne are checking out houses and said they'd be back to the hotel by five o'clock. Did you have an idea? Or just more Tinkering?"

"Tinkering. Dad got Friday and the most important equipment moved to a new warehouse that I had already rented. They even got most of my cyclotron roughly laid out so I can set it up and calibrate it," she explained as she led Emma over to her own concealed armor as its cloaking system deactivated.

It opened up to let Emma step in and then started to wrap around her in. By the time it finished, the nanites of the Mark LI finished deployed around Taylor. Both armors launched into the air and then shot east over the bay and the Atlantic, then arced north in a wide curve only inches above the waves.

Taylor deployed sound baffle drones and activated their cloaking systems again. They landed behind a warehouse with barely a sound as the human-sized door opened in front of them. The robot arm Dumber closed the door behind them.

"Hey, Dad!" Taylor called out as her helmet flowed back into the rest of the armor.

Emma popped up the blank faceplate of the Mark 2. "Hello, Mr. Hebert!"

Danny stepped out from behind a row of crates. The Mark 1 tromped around in the background as it worked with Dumber, Baka, Idiot and the other armatures to assemble the two hundred foot wide circle. "Hey, kids! How was school?"

"Placement tests," Emma said with a scrunched up face of dislike.

"I'm pretty sure my history memories are a bit messed up, but I'm confident on most everything else," Taylor said with a nod of her head.

A masked female hero stepped out a second later from the same direction. "Hello, Taylor. Emma," Challenger called out as she waved her green gloved arm at them.

Taylor held up a finger. "Just so you know, I knew you and Exceed were there from all of the other cameras in the room."

"Good instinct, but I could be a Stranger masquerading as a Protectorate hero," she replied as a counter-argument.

"I did check my messages to see which heroes were bodyguarding Dad."

"That's fair. So what are you doing here, anyways?" Challenger asked as the Earth-Aleph Brute came out from behind the crates with one of them on her shoulder.

"Hello, kids!" Exceed called out. Her scarlet bodysuit looked a bit mussed.

"Hello!" Emma called out to the Earth-Aleph hero.

"I'm manufacturing some more Starkium." Taylor tapped the center of her chest. "It's just not feasible to use the old ARC reactors, they just don't produce enough energy."

"And I think you just terrified Armsmaster, Kid Win and Wraith," Exceed said with a hint of humor in her voice.

Challenger blinked, then nodded. The one part of her face you could see, her mouth, quirked into a smile. "Yeah, probably."

The next hour passed quickly as Taylor orchestrated all the robotics and parahumans into assembling and aligning her cyclotron. She personally assembled the bulky 'consumer' palladium ARC generators. Each ARC reactor massed about the size of a laundry machine.

Far larger than needed, so she stuffed it full of redundancy and safeguards and security. Taylor verified all of the connections. Then she turned it on and started to do a calibration.

"And here we go," she said after Friday validated all of the tests.

The four ARC generators whined up to full load as the hum grew.

Challenger looked around. "And?"

"And what?" Taylor asked in confusion.

"I was expecting a light show," the second in command of the ENE Protectorate said in a droll tone.

An image of a small triangle of white, glowing metal appeared in her mind's eye memory. Taylor shook her head. "If you can see fireworks, you are probably getting a bit irradiated. And radiation is bad unless you have an enhanced genetic structure." She blinked several times. "Which I'm not even sure is a thing on Earth Bet."

"Earth to Taylor, don't get lost down a rabbit hole," Emma said as she swatted her friend's shoulder lightly.

"Right." Taylor turned to a readout. "This is going to take a while. So I'm going to get started on another project."

"We are going to do an outside sweep that will take a half hour or so," Challenger stated as she and Exceed headed to the back alley.

Taylor tapped the side of her glasses. "Back alley is clear."

"Thanks," the red garbed and masked Exceed called back as she waved back. The domino mask did not hide her face that well, but it showed her smile in a nice way.

"I'm going to head back to the hotel and watch some TV to rest my poor brain," Emma called out as she triggered the MARK 2.

"Sure! Thanks for coming. We'll have to go shopping sometime," Taylor called out as she waved goodbye.

Danny chuckled as he headed to his office to do some paperwork and check online for how the world reacted to his daughter.

* * *

Four hours later, Taylor loaded two of the industrial ARC reactors into a truck and one into the back of a PRT transport.

"Just sign here, here and here and you will be the proud owners of very clean power," Taylor explained to the representative of the city's power plant and the PRT building engineer.

"And you can just bolt the heavy power leads on the back? Well, that should be easy enough," Pablo Bullman said to finish.

"Yeah, that easy."

Sgt. Farris nodded. "We'll probably have this running as the primary, with our own generators as the secondary backup. Well, until you start to produce these in any numbers." He sounded unconvinced of that idea.

"You would not believe how much work that will take. These are essentially gifts so the Nuclear Regulatory Commission only has to be informed. It's like a five year process to certify a power plant." As long as you had friends in high places helping, anyways. Taylor gave them a smile.

Ten minutes later, only her father and the robots remained.

"Stranger check, Friday," Taylor ordered.

"The sensor anamolies have not reappeared in over an hour. I have found four bugs," Friday stated.

Baka rolled up and handed her a plastic baggy with a flat, gray circle about the size of a medical device battery.

"Thanks, Baka," she said as she took the device and then moved to one of the work benches. Twenty minutes later, she gave Friday the specific frequencies and magnet resonance to scan the entire building.

The three robot arms quickly finished catching and destroying all the bugs.

"Was that really necessary?" Danny asked.

"I should scrub my entire plan, but if I can get this to work right I can get a big boost to my armors. Okay, Friday, start assembling the Haywire Mark I."

"Estimated time: Two hours and twelve minutes," the A.I. chimed out.

"And why should you not be going on with this?" her father asked in a slow voice.

"Because dimensional portal technology is a banned technology. Luckily, I'm getting around the really illegal parts." She looked over to her father who waited impatiently. "I'm not studying any lost or stolen devices from Dr. Haywire, because I got a good look at what the Simurgh made during Madison. I've been crunching numbers and reading physics papers and I think I've got it licked. Maybe even improved it."

"And the PRT is not going to throw you in prison because..?" he drawled out as he scrubbed his hand through his balding hair.

"I will be fixing an unresolved issue with the Guardian Alliance and then never using it on inhabited alternate Earths." Taylor did not understand why Haywire's device had so many limitations. Literally only a millionth of a percent of possible Earth. And she could improve it. "The second reason that I'm pretty sure our Stranger danger today is Wrath of the Guardian Alliance."

Danny chuckeled at that. "Oh, I see. You are going to send them home, so it's in their own best interest."

"Bingo!"

Hours later, a ring-like device that shared a parentage of a generator and cyclotrons hung from the ceiling on a track.

"Power it up, Friday. And then start scanning with the signature I've set up," Taylor said as she formed the Iron Lass armor around her.

"I have detected a small subset of Earths that match. Now filtering out any advanced technology emissions. Randomly picking one of the ten thousand targets and matching with a livable biosphere," Friday stated as the portal device rumbled with energy.

The energy built up and reverbrated through the building as a point in space at the center of the ring expanded. Through the ten foot wide portal, a crater miles wide filled the view under a night's sky. Even covered in lush, jungle vegitation spired of stone and metal poked through.

And vein's of purplish light peaked through.

"Look at all that vibranium. I am going to do so many things!" she said with a very wide smile on her face.

Danny coughed. "You are sending robots through to mine that, right?"

"I was just going to zoom in there and grab enough to upgrade the Haywire I. Why?"

"And who is going to fix the portal if it breaks or shuts down and leaves my daughter on an uninhabited world?"

Taylor opened her mouth. "Um, Friday could fix it."

"I agree with your father," the A.I. said. "We should send drones through to get the vibranium. Drones are expendable. You are not."

"You guys are ganging up on me," the genius noted in a stubborn tone.

"Taylor?"

"Fine, Dad. I'll make some drones and then send them.


End file.
